(Alliance News) - Dixons Carphone PLC on Thursday said it expects a surge in adjusted profit in its current financial year despite reporting mixed performance in the first half.
Dixons Carphone shares were trading 4.7% higher in London on Thursday at 138.10 pence each.
The electrical goods and mobile phone retailer reported a pretax loss of GBP86 million for the 26 weeks to October 26, narrowed compared to the GBP440 million loss a year earlier, despite revenue slipping to GBP4.71 billion from GBP4.89 billion.
Dixons recorded just GBP110 million in adjusting items for the recent period versus GBP500 million a year ago. Adjusted pretax profit of GBP24 million still was sharply lower than the GBP60 million recorded a year prior. As previously guided, this is expected to be around GBP210 million for the full-year.
Like-for-like sales fell 1% in the period, dragged down by UK & Ireland mobile, down 10%, amid challenges in the 24 month post-pay market.
But for the year as the whole, Dixons Carphone said it expects to deliver adjusted pretax profit around GBP210 million without explaining the reason for the expected improvement.
"Mobile is challenging as expected. As promised, this will be the trough year for Mobile losses, and it will be break-even by 2022," said Chief Executive Alex Baldock.
Turning to UK Electricals, Dixons Carphone highlighted that the market was particularly challenged in categories such as console gaming, imaging and major domestic appliances, while market growth was particularly strong in health & beauty and headphones.
Dixons Carphone declared 2.25 pence a share interim dividend, unchanged on the prior year. The company said it expects its full-year payout to be flat year-on-year, at 4.50p.
"Good progress, yes, but all of us at Dixons Carphone are shareholders, and conscious that our business is still nowhere near its full potential. We're determined to realise that potential, and confident we're on the right path to do so," added Baldock.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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