French Connection shares down 23%

Fashion retailer French Connection Group, which has outlets in Ireland, has reported a half-year loss and said it expected to stay in the red for the full year, sending its shares down as much as 23%.

The British retailer reported a pretax loss of £6.3m (€7.8m) for the six months to July 31, compared with a profit a year earlier, as its core UK market continued to struggle.

“UK has continued to be reasonably difficult,” chief operating officer Neil Williams said.