Continued Positive Trading

Ahead of the Company's AGM later today, the CEO of Debenhams, Dan Finley, makes the following statement on the Group's trading performance.

Dan Finley, Group Chief Executive Officer, said:

"Recent trading updates, with two upgrades to guidance in nine months, have shown that our multi-year turnaround continues at pace.

We are pleased with the continued positive trading through June and July. GMV continues to grow year on year, margins are up and returns are down. Our platform model and diversified product assortment enables us to pivot quickly and capitalise on consumer demand. This has been especially so on Debenhams during the recent hot weather.

Our Debenhams brand is a proven growth story with an excellent asset light business model. Young Fashion is turning around with PLT returned to growth and profitability. KM remains a quality brand with significant global potential.

Strategically the group remains well positioned with lots of optionality.

Through continued improved trading and the sale of our remaining non-core property assets, we expect net debt to be materially lower in the current year. We are committed to reducing it below 1x Adjusted EBITDA in the year ending Feb-27. With strategic brand licensing opportunities and potential business disposals, there is the opportunity to eliminate the debt.

Over the course of this year, investors should expect to see much better conversion of Adjusted EBITDA to reported EBITDA and to operating profit as the major costs of the transformation have now passed. This will be a particular feature of our H1 results.

In the medium term, we see the opportunity for our Debenhams brand to become a £multi-billion GMV business with a £100m+ EBITDA. In Young Fashion, returning to growth, strengthening the proposition and continuing to improve the profitability mean that they can become material contributors to Group profitability again. Karen Millen has significant value.

The Group will update on H1 performance in September."