Kesa Electricals posts 61.7% hike in H1 profit |
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Published
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Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:55
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LONDON: Kesa Electricals Plc., which owns Darty stores in France and Comet in the U.K., has posted a substantial 61.7 per cent increase in its first half pre-tax profit at 39.3 million pounds, beating market expectations.
Chief executive Jean-Noel Labroue said the company gained from increased sales of laptops in August and high-definition television sets earlier at the time of World Cup soccer.
The company's sales during the period rose 11 per cent to 1.93 billion pounds.
Labroue said in a statement the particular strength of demand factors in the current year, the adverse effect on margin of new technologies, together with the company's investment plans, will impact profit progression in 2007. He explained at a news conference that the next year's profits would not grow at the same rate as this year, when earnings were boosted by the World Cup.
Sales at the group's stores open more than a year increased 7.5 per cent. In France, Darty retail profit rose 17 per cent to 41.7 million pounds, while sales increased 11 per cent to 765.6 million pounds. At BUT, which sells electrical products and furniture, same store sales fell 2.4 per cent. Total sales gained 2.6 per cent to 266.6 million pounds.
In the U.K. chain Comet, there was a retail profit of 4.7 million, compared with a loss of 1.7 million pounds in the previous year while sales went up 9.6 per cent to 683.5 million pounds.
Kesa's shares fell 6.75 pence, or 2 per cent, to 326 pence in London.
The company is hiking interim dividend by 10 per cent to 3.25 pence per share.
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