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The Boohoo Group (LSE: DEBS) share price jumped 7% Wednesday morning (28 January), after the company issued an update on progress for the year to 28 February. The online fashion pioneer — now known as Debenhams Group — said it’s “trading above expectations.“
We still have a month to go before the year ends. But we should be on for £50m in adjusted EBITDA. That’s a significant boost to the guidance of £45m offered at first-half results time.
Boohoo had been considering selling off its PrettyLittleThing (PLT) operation. But that’s off the table now. The board is “particularly pleased with the pace and scale of PLT’s turnaround and the resulting material improvement in profitability.”
Debt has been a problem as Boohoo has been working on its turnaround plans. The net figure was, however, down 22% to £111m at the end of the first half in August.
This time the company says it’s “exploring significant licensing opportunities and continues to advance the sale of non-core assets, which would materially reduce the net debt in the next 12 months.“
That would mark some major progress and reduce one of the key risks investors are currently contending with. We should hear further details in March.
Back to profit soon?
This latest progress could bring one important advance. Analyst forecasts still show a bottom-line loss per share happening as far as 2028. But the mooted 2028 loss figure of a mere 0.3p is only a shade short of breakeven.
I’m now seeing an odds-on chance of positive earnings per share in 2028. Or at the current rate of progress perhaps even earlier?
Crucially, it’s increasingly looking like one key driving force is turning positive. And that’s investor sentiment. Since a 52-week low of 10.3p in November 2025, the Boohoo share price has now gained 146% — standing at over 25p at the time of writing.
Strategic shift
I see this as testament to Boohoo’s repositioning. It’s moving from concentrating on its own-brand labels to providing a platform for goods from a wide range of partners.
At H1 time, the company said: “Our marketplace model is at the heart of our go-forward business. It is stock-lite, capital-lite, margin-rich and highly cash generative.” And it pointed out: “There are now c.20k partners in our ecosystem (up from c.10k a year ago) and we see significant further partner growth potential.”
That’s what I’m going to be looking for when we get our eyes on the full-year results. And I’ll be keeping a check for possible forecast upgrades too.
Time to buy again?
I’m still a good way from breaking even on my Boohoo Group holding. And I still see fears over the likelihood of sustained revenue growth. But I’ve moved on from thinking my shares are close to worthless. Yet I won’t consider buying more until I see further progress.
