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Next PLC on Wednesday said it had raised its annual profit guidance to £885 million after its third quarter sales beat expectations. The Leicester, England-based clothing, footwear and home products’ retailer had previously forecasted a pretax profit of £875 million for the financial year ending in January 2024. Pretax profit for financial 2023 was £870.4 million. This comes after Next said sales in the three months ended October 28 grew 4.0% from a year ago, £23 million ahead of its guidance which was originally set to be an increase of 2.0%. This was mainly driven by sales growth in its Online division of 6.5%. Next also expects to report higher pretax earnings per share of 730.2 pence, up 4.1% from a year ago. Previous guidance was set to £723.9p. The retailer added that after raising its equity stake in clothing brand Reiss to 72% from 52% earlier this year, it will receive an exceptional accounting gain of around £100 million. Shares in Next were up 3.6% at 7,132.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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