* H1 adjusted pretax profit down 60 pct to 24 mln stg
* Maintains FY profit outlook of 210 mln stg
* Shares up 6 pct
(Adds share price, analyst comment, CEO comment)
LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - British electricals retailer
Dixons Carphone stuck to its forecast for annual profit
and said a plan to cope with the challenging mobile phone market
was working, but it wasn't counting on any post-election boost.
It reported a drop in first-half profit of 60 percent,
though it maintained its financial guidance for its full 2019-20
year.
UK voters headed to the polls on Thursday in an election
that could break the impasse over Britain's exit from the
European Union, but Dixons Carphone chief executive Alex Baldock
said that political clarity wouldn't necessarily help consumer
confidence.
"The current uncertainty is certainly having a dampening
effect on consumer confidence," he told reporters. He said any
prospect of a post-election uptick would be "an outcome I'd
welcome, but we're not counting on it."
Baldock, who has been CEO since April 2018, is leading a
plan to turnaround Dixons Carphone which has been hurt by a
shift in the mobile phone market as customers keep their
handsets for longer, choose cheaper SIM-only deals, and turn to
more flexible credit-based offers.
The company, which trades as Currys, PC World and Carphone
Warehouse in the UK and Ireland, stuck to a forecast for
adjusted pretax profit of around 210 million pounds ($269.43
million) for its 2019-2020 financial year, 30% lower than in
2018-19.
In its first half, the 26 weeks to Oct. 26, it made a pretax
profit of 24 million pounds, compared with 60 million pounds in
the year-earlier period, on mobile UK and Ireland mobile revenue
which plunged 18 percent.
The shares rose 6 percent to 139 pence at 1017 GMT, which
analysts said reflected the company's reassurance that it would
meet annual forecasts.
"An 18% decline in first-half mobile revenue is hardly what
one would call robust, however expectations were low going into
the results," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
Baldock said the company was in a trough year for losses
from its mobile unit, adding it was expected to break-even by
2022.
"We're on track to deliver what we promised this year, and
with our longer-term transformation," he said.
The mobile business's improvement will come from the
renegotiation all of the group's legacy contracts with network
providers Vodafone, EE and O2.
A revamp of the group's mobile product range, including
improved choice in SIM-only deals and flexible credit based
bundles, will also boost its performance, plus fully combining
the two cost bases of what were two separate businesses, Dixons
and Carphone Warehouse, which came together in a 2014 merger.
($1 = 0.7794 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by James Davey and Mike
Harrison)
Vodafone (VOD)
BT (BT.A)
