Dixons Carphone online sales surge

Investing

Dixons Carphone has reinstated its dividend after posting a 34 per cent rise in annual profit, with the electronics retailer helped by a boom in online demand.

For the year to May 1 Dixons reported an adjusted pre-tax profit of £156m on revenue of £10.3bn. Online sales more than doubled year on year to £4.7bn. Management proposed a full-year dividend of 3p.

For the current year Dixons said trading had remained strong in all markets and international sales are trending positively. It set a target to deliver over £1bn of cumulative free cash flow by 2024.

Briefly

Indivior said a forecast-beating first-half performance meant 2021 revenue and profit would be significantly above expectations. The opioid addiction treatment maker targeted net revenue of between $705m and $740m as momentum from its Sublocade injectable helps bolster steady sales of its top seller, Suboxone Film.

Full-year results from Stagecoach beat expectations, with the bus operator posting an underlying operating profit down 56.6 per cent year on year to £44.3m versus consensus forecasts of about £30m. One-offs including the unwind of its rail franchises and fuel hedge accounting meant headline pre-tax profit was £24.7m rather than the narrow loss expected by analysts. Stagecoach said vehicle mileage has been restored to 94 per cent of pre-Covid levels and remained confident in its long-term prospects, in spite of short-term uncertainties.

Hurricane Energy’s chair Steven McTiernan and four non-executive directors have resigned with immediate effect from the board of the Shetlands oil explorer. Their exits follow a Hight Court ruling on Monday that rejected Hurricane’s controversial financial restructuring that would have virtually wiped out its shareholders. The company also revealed that activist fund Crystal Amber, Hurricane’s biggest shareholder, had withdrawn its request for a shareholder meeting.

Rio Tinto declared force majeure on customer contracts at its Richards Bay Minerals titanium mine in South Africa “due to an escalation in the security situation at the operations.” All mining and smelting operations at RBM have been halted until the safety and security position improves, Rio said.

Outsourcer Serco flagged that heavy investment was required during the second half in “our systems platform, cyber resilience, and business development”. Its first-half trading statement left earnings guidance unchanged.

Retailer Topps Tiles reported robust trading in the quarter just ended. On a two-year basis, retail like-for-like sales grew by 12.9 per cent over the quarter as a whole and were up 18.5 per cent in the eleven weeks since stores fully reopened in April, it said. While percentage gross margins in the period were slightly lower than previous guidance, the successful launch of an outdoor range meant gross profits were strong, Topps said.

Warehouse developer Urban Logistics Reit is raising £108m with a share placing by accelerated bookbuild to tap a “significant pipeline of attractive investment opportunities”. The new shares will be priced at 155p apiece, a 5.2 per cent discount to Tuesday’s close.

M&C Saatchi said trading has been ahead of expectations for first five months of 2021, with half year headline pre-tax profit expected to be in excess of £10m. For 2020 the advertising agency reported an £8.3m pre-tax profit, down 51.5 per cent year on year.

EnQuest, the North Sea oil group, launched a placing and open offer to raise £36.1m to fund its recently announced acquisition of stakes in the Golden Eagle oilfield off the coast of Aberdeen. EnQuest priced the new shares at 19p apiece, an 8.7 per cent discount to Tuesday’s closing price.

Pendragon, the auto dealership, reinstated full-year guidance after strong trading in the first half delivered an underlying pre-tax profit of around £30m. Uncertainties over the semiconductor shortage and supply constraints both on new and used vehicles meant Pendragon targeted a full-year underlying pre-tax profit of between £45m and £50m.

Beyond the Square Mile

Microsoft and Google have ended an almost six-year truce to prevent open warfare between the rival Big Tech companies, clearing the way for direct conflict as regulators take aim at barriers to competition among the leading US technology groups.

Teneo CEO Declan Kelly has resigned as head of the communication firm Teneo, five days after the FT revealed that Kelly had inappropriately touched a number of women without their consent.

The Zaoui brothers dealmaking duo have teamed up with several prominent European executives to create a special purpose acquisition company that is raising €300m to invest in healthcare and technology businesses in the region. Odyssey Acquisition will list on the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam.

Deutsche Bank will be unable to sponsor initial public offerings in Hong Kong from July after the German lender failed to replace two regulated staff on time. The error means the IPO sponsor licence of Deutsche Securities Asia, the bank’s regional equity capital markets division, will lapse from next month.

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