Carphone Warehouse raised its full-year profit guidance for the third time in six months, boosted by demand for smartphones, and forecast strong growth for the year ahead.
The group, whose joint venture with US group Best Buy is unveiling the first of a planning chain of UK megastores later today, said it expected particularly strong growth at the Best Buy Mobile business in the United States.
"The macro environment will undoubtedly present challenges but we are well positioned in each of our businesses and we are targeting 40 to 45 per cent EPS (earnings per share) growth for our 2011 financial year," said Chairman Charles Dunstone.
Carphone, which demerged its telecoms arm TalkTalk last month, said underlying EPS for the year ended March would be 8.0-8.4 pence, up from 4 pence the year before.
Like-for-like revenues at the group's European business were up 3 per cent at constant currencies in the final quarter, while customer connections at Best Buy Mobile were up 34 per cent.
The fledgling megastore business made a loss of £21 million before interest and tax. That loss is expected to increase to £40-45 million in the new financial year as the group opens more stores.