The Lewis share price slumped to its lowest level in seven years on Friday after a trading update revealed that the soon-to-be released interim results would show earnings down by as much as a staggering 45% on the financial 2016 interims. The share fell 8% to R38 in morning trade before recovering to close at R40.27, a fall of 3.3% on the day. CEO Johan Enslin told shareholders at the annual general meeting on Friday that headline earnings a share for the six months to September are expected to be between 177c and 210c. This is a drop of between 35% and 45% from the 322.6c reported for the six months to September 2015. Enslin attributed the weak performance to "the challenging economic and consumer environment" that had affected the group’s lower-to middle-income target customers. "This has been compounded by the ongoing impact of the National Credit Regulator’s (NCR’s) affordability assessment guidelines that are restricting access to credit in SA and severely limiting the group’s...
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