One in five publicly listed companies in the UK issued a profit warning last year - the level remaining at the third-highest of any point in the previous 75 years. The only times those levels have been eclipsed beforehand were during the 2020 Covid pandemic and following the aftermath of the dot-com bust and 9/11 in 2001.
Research from EY shows that 19 per cent of businesses sounded the alarm during the course of the year, for a total of 274 warnings, continuing the theme from 2023 when 294 profit warnings were sent out.
