Home improvement retailer Kingfisher has today reported a 6.4% fall in underlying first half profit, mainly hurt by the weak performance of its French operation.
The lower profits underline the task ahead for the company's new chief executive.
Kingfisher is in the fourth year of a five-year programme that was designed to boost earnings.
However, profits went backwards in 2018-19 and the group said in March it would part company with Véronique Laury, its CEO since 2014.
She exits next week and will be succeeded by Carrefour veteran Thierry Garnier.
Kingfisher's shares have fallen 24% over the last year and some analysts believe the firm is vulnerable to a possible bid from private equity.
The group's main businesses are B&Q and Screwfix in Britain and Castorama and Brico Depot in France and elsewhere.
It said it made an underlying pretax profit of £353m in the six months to July 31.
While that was ahead of analysts' average forecast of £342m, it was down from £377m the same time last year.
Total sales fell 0.9% on a constant currency basis to £6 billion. Like-for-like sales were down 1.8%, with growth in Screwfix, Poland and Romania offset by B&Q and France.
Kingfisher said its outlook by geography remained mixed, highlighting continued uncertainty around UK consumer demand.
It maintained its forecast for a flat gross margin for the full 2019-20 year.
Before today's update analysts were on average forecasting a 2019-20 underlying pretax profit of £658m, down from £693m made in 2018-19.
