Kingfisher Raises Guidance and Announces Buyback Despite Anticipated Slowdown in H2; FVE Maintained

Demand for no-moat Kingfisher’s do-it-yourself products has been more resilient than initially expected during the start of second-half 2021, resulting in management raising full guidance. Second-half sales are expected to fall between 3% and 7% from the initial guidance of a decline between 5% and 15%. We slightly adjust our short-term forecasts but maintain our GBX 353 fair value estimate, which is in line with the current share price.