Asos profit held back by hefty investment

Shares lost ground yesterday as the group cautioned that significant investment would prevent earnings from growing in the current financial year. It follows a profit alert in June and a serious fire at its main warehouse in Barnsley which forced it to suspend orders.

Prior to the latest update, analysts were forecasting a consensus pre-tax profit for the 2013-14 year of £45 million, down from £54.7m in 2012-13.

Freddie George, a retail analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, retained his forecast for profits of £46m in the year to August but reduced his target for the year to August 2015 from £55m to £48m.

Nick Robertson, chief executive of Asos, which stocks some 90,000 branded and own-brand products aimed at 20-something customers, said: “We remain focused on the long-term opportunity for Asos, with £2.5 billion of sales as our next staging post.”