Darty (DRTY) is in the third year of its 'nouvelle confiance' turnaround plan. In the last 18 months the electicals retailer has bought white goods website mistergooddeal.com, pulled out of the UK - where it owned the defunct Comet chain - as well as Spain, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and set itself stringent cost-savings targets. That's left the group trading in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, where consumer demand remains subdued.
Yet the plan appears to be working on some counts. Last year mistergooddeal.com and the growing franchise business drove a 3.5 per cent uplift in French sales, while the acquisition of 18 profitable stores from a Dutch competitor helped push sales in the Netherlands and Belgium up 1.7 per cent. However, negative like-for-like growth in both geographies, an 80 basis point drop in gross margins, and costs associated with integrating mistergooddeal.com held back pre-tax profit.
Adjusted operating profit of €70m in the French division beat UBS forecasts by €3m, but the broker only upgraded its total EPS forecast for the 2016 financial year by 1 per cent to 7.9ȼ given the "muted" French outlook. That compares with EPS of 6ȼ delivered in the year to April 2015.
| DARTY (DRTY) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 71p | MARKET VALUE: | £373m | |
| TOUCH: | 70-71p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 103p | LOW: 62p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.5% | PE RATIO: | 34 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | * | NET DEBT: | £222m | |
| Year to 30 Apr | Turnover (€bn) | Pre-tax profit (€m) | Earnings per share (ȼ) | Dividend per share (ȼ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 4.11 | 85.6 | 9.9 | 7.0 |
| 2012 | 3.89 | 38.6 | 3.4 | 3.5 |
| 2013 | 3.56 | 4.0 | 0.7 | 3.5 |
| 2014 | 3.40 | 37.4 | 2.1 | 3.5 |
| 2015 | 3.51 | 32.9 | 2.9 | 3.5 |
| % change | +3 | -12 | +38 | - |
Ex-div: 22 Oct Payment: 13 Nov *Negative shareholders' funds £1=€1.40 | ||||
