Poundland, the discount retailer subject to a possible takeover bid from South Africa's Steinhoff, today reported a 13.5% fall in underlying full-year profit.
Europe's biggest single price discounter, which trades as Dealz in Ireland, said it was hurt by subdued trading, adverse currency moves and the distraction of integrating the 99p Stores chain it bought last year.
Steinhoff has bought 23% of Poundland and is considering a full cash bid.
Poundland has told shareholders to take no action. Under UK takeover rules, Steinhoff has until July 13 to announce a firm intention to bid for all of Poundland.
The retailer made an underlying pretax profit of £37.8m in the year to March 27. That was below analysts' forecasts which ranged from £39.9m to £51.8m and was down from £43.7m in 2014-15.
Underlying sales increased 9.3% to £1.21 billion, while sales at stores open over a year fell 3.9%.
Poundland completed the £55m purchase of the 251-outlet 99p Stores chain in September and has since converted the entire estate to the Poundland format.
Poundland said today that underlying sales in the 11 weeks to June 11 increased 28.6%.
The results are the last to be presented by Jim McCarthy, Poundland's chief executive for the past decade.
He retires next month and will be succeeded by former Kingfisher executive Jim McCarthy.
