Dixons Carphone mulls Nordic float as online sales surge
Dixons Carphone today said it was mulling a stock market listing for its Nordics business as domestic sales surged on increased online demand.
The company reported a 12 per cent rise in electricals sales in the UK and Ireland in the 17 weeks to the end of August.
This was driven by booming online sales, which more than tripled year on year while stores were shuttered during the coronavirus lockdown.
Shares in the retailer jumped more than nine per cent in early trading.
However, sales in Dixons Travel stores collapsed 90 per cent due to the pandemic, lowering gross margin over the period.
International like-for-like revenue grew 16 per cent over the period, with online sales in the Nordics and Greece rising 49 per cent and 115 per cent respectively.
Dixons Carphone said it was weighing up the listing of a minority stake in its Nordics business next year.
Chief executive Alex Baldock said the move would “shine a light on the value of the Nordics business whilst retaining it as part of the group”.
The retailer’s overall performance was weighed down by its mobile division, however, which suffered a 56 per cent decline in revenue.
Dixons Carphone has been struggling with its loss-making mobile business amid lower demand for new phones.
Earlier this year the group announced plans to shut all standalone Carphone Warehouse stores in face of waning demand.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the mobile market remained “very tough indeed”.
But she hailed Dixons Carphone’s Shoplive platform, which allows customers to book appointments with assistants in-store and access video demos from home.
“That helped online sales triple while stores were closed, and it’s very encouraging to see that since Dixons Carphone flung open the doors once again, online sales tills have continued to ring at double the rate they did last year,” she said.
Boss Baldock added: “We’ve started the year well, but nobody knows what the future holds and, like many, we remain cautious in our outlook.”