![\"Construction\"](\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Construction-house-.png\")
Profit warnings issued by businesses quoted on the London Stock Exchange reached a near two-year high in the recent quarter as they continue to come under pressure from rising costs.<\/p>\n
The research from advisory firm EY shows that 65 public firms issued downgrades in the three months to the end of September, compared with 59 during the previous quarter.<\/p>\n
It marks the highest figure since the final three months of 2024, when 71 warnings were released and comes ahead of the first Budget to be delivered by John Healey.<\/p>\n
The Chancellor\u2019s focus is expected to include further measures to help smaller companies in the private sector, such as pubs and restaurants. This could include a rise in the threshold at which small firms start paying business rates from \u00a312,000 to \u00a318,000.<\/p>\n
Among those in the quoted sector, housebuilders have already issued more warnings this year than during the 2008 financial crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Geopolitical instability and policy shifts were identified as the primary drivers of profit warnings, featured in 54% of cases over the third quarter, while 38% cited the fallout from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
More than a third of warnings, 35%, referenced rising costs as a leading factor, pointing towards inflationary pressures and higher business costs.<\/p>\n
Almost a fifth of quoted companies, 17%, have issued at least one profit warning over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n
Jo Robinson, EY-Parthenon partner and UK&I financial restructuring leader, said: \u201cThe latest figures show the variety of structural changes and challenges that companies are currently navigating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a conventional economic cycle. For much of the post-war period, the economy followed a familiar demand-led boom-and-bust pattern but, since the pandemic, supply-side disruption including material and labour shortages, energy shocks, tariffs and wider geopolitical disruption has become far more significant.\u201d<\/p>\n
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