- Darty’s full-year retail profits jump 24% to €93.1 million
- Like-for-likes climb 3.9%
- Fnac’s bid for the business was recommended by Darty board last month
London-listed electricals retailer Darty said its retail profits advanced 24% to €93.1m ahead of Fnac’s tabled takeover of the business.
The French retailer unveiled a 3.9% increase in like-for-likes for the year ended April 30, driven by a 6.1% spike in its domestic market. Its online sales also advanced 13%.
Last month, French electricals rival Fnac tabled the highest bid for Darty, following a frenetic bidding war with Steinhoff-owned Conforama.
Fnac’s third and final bid of 170p per share – equivalent to £914m – for Darty was recommended by the board last month.
Darty said today the offer was expected to be declared unconditional on or before August 5.
The group’s adjusted profit before tax for the year rose 36% to €69.6m. However, because the business incurred exceptional costs to the tune of €36.5m, “principally relating to asset write-offs and business disruption costs in the Netherlands”, its pre-tax profits fell from €32m to €28m.
Darty, which has 400 stores in Europe, has exited loss-making operations in Italy, Spain, Turkey and the Czech Republic to focus on France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Darty chief executive Regis Schultz said the group delivered “strong trading” with market share gains and “greatly improved cash generation”.
He said: “Our growth initiatives – the franchise operation, extended kitchen offer and Mistergooddeal.com – all evolved and delivered significantly improved results.
”We also continued to innovate in terms of digitalisation and have further enhanced our market-leading services offer.”
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