Creightons’ shareholders have been warned to brace themselves for acquisition impairment charges affecting 2024 pre-tax profits.

The personal care, beauty and fragrance products developer and manufacturer said Monday (8 July) that its Emma Hardie beauty business, acquired in July 2021 for £6.2 million, has had a value-in-use review. The result? There will be an exceptional impairment charge of £4.45 million which will “materially adversely impact the reported pre-tax profit”.

It added that the impairment will also result in “a derecognition of the goodwill value of £1.28 million, relating to the deferred tax… with consequential adjustments to the deferred tax accrual”.  

The net effect of these will be a tax charge of £0.17 million with the net impact on accounts resulting in a non-cash post-tax charge of £4.62 million, it added.

But there was also some positive news on its operational performance in the year to 31 March with Creightons saying it expects to show “improved underlying profit and cash generation” in the second half compared to H1.

The company, which will publish audited preliminary results for the year on 18 July, said it will also hold a presentation to investors and analysts on 24 July.