Carphone Warehouse silent on Dixons merger talks

Carphone Warehouse, Europe's biggest independent mobile phone retailer currently in merger talks with Dixons Retail, reiterated full-year earnings guidance and posted a rise in fourth quarter revenue at its main CPW business.

The firm’s trading statement on Tuesday made no mention of the talks with Dixons, for a possible £4 billion merger.

Britain’s Takeover Panel has imposed a May 19 deadline for the two firms to confirm whether they intend to press ahead with a deal that would create a group with about 2,900 stores across Europe and which would likely find a place in Britain’s FTSE 100 share index.

"We'll update the market in due course," Carphone CEO Andrew Harrison said, declining to elaborate on the progress of the talks, which were revealed to the market on February 24.

Carphone’s shares are up 13.9 per cent over the last three months, while Dixons’ are up 2.4 per cent.

Carphone said revenue at CPW Group stores open over a year rose 2.3 per cent in the three months to March 29, a seventh straight quarter of like-for-like growth, helped by growing sales of 4G superfast mobile broadband products.

That compares to third quarter like-for-like growth of 3.1 per cent.

CPW’s like-for-like revenue was up about 4 per cent in the UK and flat in Europe.

However, the firm said revenue at its Virgin Mobile France joint venture fell 8.6 per cent, reflecting continued competitive activity in the French market. The joint venture’s postpay base of 1.3 million customers was down 17,000.

Carphone reiterated its full-year guidance for headline earnings per share of 17-20 pence, up from 12.3 pence in the 2012-13 year.

Reuters