U.K. Retailer Sports Direct Hit By Pound's Flash Crash; Stock Falls 12%

Shares in Sports Direct International PLC traded 12% lower on Friday after the U.K. sporting goods retailer warned about the British pound's flash crash during Asian trade hurting earnings. "In light of recent downward currency movements, the company entered into a hedging arrangement with respect to the GBP/USD rate," Sports Direct said in a news release. "Extreme movements overnight resulted in a crystallization of that rate at 1.19, resulting in a negative impact of approximately �15m [$19 million] on the company's FY17 underlying EBITDA expectation." EBITDA refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. "In addition, after taking into account the hedging referred to above, if the GBP/USD rate is 1.20 on average for the remainder of FY17, then the negative impact on the company's FY17 underlying EBITDA expectation would be in the order of a further �20m," the company added.