Ideal Shopping sees trading loss as shares tumble

(Reuters) - Television shopping company Ideal Shopping Direct said on Wednesday it expects a full-year trading loss of around 4 million pounds before exceptional items on lower sales and margins, and its shares fell 55 percent.

Revenue in November was substantially below expectations, and although the first nine days of December were broadly in line with last year, it said it was unlikely to make up for the November shortfall.

Total net revenue for the six weeks from October 26 to December 7 was 17 percent lower than a year earlier, it said.

The company named Ian Jebson as finance director effective March 1, replacing Steve Mensforth, who will step down as interim finance director.

Ideal Shopping, which appointed Michael Hancox as chief executive last month, said it would cut headcount by 15 percent, resulting in the loss of about 70 jobs and an annual employment cost saving of 1.5 million pounds.

The company said it would phase out the majority of temporary staff by the December 28 end of the financial year and incur redundancy costs of about 400,000 pounds in the current financial year.

It said it appointed KPMG to help review its internal accounting processes and conduct a full balance sheet review. At 08:05 a.m., shares of the company were down 55 percent at 22.5 pence.

(Reporting by Srikanth Srinivasa in Bangalore; Editing by Mike Miller)