By James Davey
LONDON (Reuters) - DSG International
DSG, which runs the Currys and PC World chains, said on Thursday sales at stores open at least a year fell 4 percent in the 24 weeks to October 17, but were up 1 percent in the last eight weeks of the period.
"This trend was continued...which puts us in a good position," Chief Executive John Browett told reporters.
He expects strong sales of laptops and notebooks, large screen televisions and food mixers this Christmas.
"People are still economising on going to eat out so the sale of Kenwood Chefs has been fantastic," he said.
His comments chimed with the latest Confederation of British Industry data which said retail sales rose at their fastest pace in two years in November.
Analysts at the company's joint house broker Citi said pretax profit consensus for DSG's year to end-April 2010 was likely to rise about 20 percent to 65-70 million pounds, up from 50.5 million pounds in the previous year.
The shares rose 2.2 percent to 37.4 pence at 10:55 a.m., valuing the business at about 1.3 billion pounds. Over the last 12 months the stock has more than trebled in value, outperforming the general retailers index <.FTASX5370> by over 100 percent.
DSG shares slumped by up to 90 percent last year on fears the firm might breach banking agreements, but it raised 300 million pounds in a share sale earlier this year and renegotiated its borrowing.
STILL CAUTIOUS ON 2010
DSG's update adds to signs of a gradual recovery in consumer spending in Europe, though the evidence is not conclusive and many retailers are focussing on cutting costs as they expect rising taxes and unemployment to keep demand subdued in 2010.
Bookseller Borders UK on Wednesday filed a notice to appoint administrators.
DSG's Browett remained cautious about the outlook for 2010.
The firm, which also runs UniEuro in Italy and Elkjop in Nordic countries, said on Thursday it made a first-half underlying pretax loss of 17.6 million pounds, beating analysts' forecasts for a loss of 24-35 million pounds.
The group is one-and-a-half years into a turnaround plan that focuses on cutting costs and stocks, selling off underperforming businesses and revamping stores.
Sales fell 1 percent to 3.33 billion pounds in the first half, but the gross profit margin was up 0.4 percent.
The retailer said it had upgraded stores accounting for a third of sales volume in Britain in time for Christmas trading.
DSG reduced its net debt to 177.7 million pounds from 477.5 in April and anticipates net debt of 250 million pounds at its April 2010 year-end.
Earlier this month Europe's No.1 electricals retailer Metro
Number three player Kesa Electricals
(Additional reporting by Mark Potter, Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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