Revolution Beauty: All eyes on signs of a rebound after Boohoo spat
Investors will turn their focus to Revolution Beauty’s upcoming annual results on Thursday to see if the troubled cosmetics line has shown any signs of rebounding following a public spat with its chief stakeholder Boohoo.
The cosmetics company has recently just begun trading on the London Stock Exchange again in June after its shares were suspended for 10 months due after the company’s auditor flagged concerns about its accounts and Revolution failed to publish its financial results.
So far this group has shown signs of performing well revealing a 60 per cent hike in sales year on year in the first quarter of this year this summer.
In recent months the company’s financial health had been overshadowed by Boohoo’s coup at one of its shareholders meetings.
Boohoo, which holds a 26.6 per cent stake in Revolution, wanted to boot out Revolution’s chief executive Bob Holt, chairman Derek Zissman and chief financial officer Elizabeth Lake.
The fast-fashion retailer wanted to replace them with three new people – New Look executive chairman Alistair McGeorge, Boohoo executive director Neil Catto and THG’s former beauty director Rachel Horsefield – to inject e-commerce knowledge into the brand.
However, the trio were then allowed to be re-elected at a meeting by independent director Jeremy Schwartz, as he was the last remaining director on the board and in order for the company to operate, and relist its shares on the AIM.
Since then the companies have struck a peace deal with Zimmerman and Holt agreeing to step down.
“Ultimately the key benchmark for the results will be how REVB performs relative to the guidance for full-year sales growth given by soon-to-be-ex-CEO Bob Holt alongside June’s much-delayed interims, and whether it achieves low single-digit percentage revenue growth and a small EBITDA losses,” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said.
“Any change guidance for fiscal 2024, where Revolution has previously steered analysts to expect high single-digit percentage sales growth and a small EBITDA profit, will also be important.”
“The mix in sales between digital and physical stores and trends in wholesale revenues will also be scrutinised while analysts will also look to margin trends,” he added.