DSG, Kesa profits to reveal impact

 

European electricals goods retailers, DSG International and Kesa Electricals, will both reveal a slump in annual profit next week, showing the impact of recession on discretionary spending.

DSG, Europe's no 2 electricals retailer, is forecast to report a 79 percent fall in full-year profit Thursday, while Kesa, Europe's no 3, is expected to report a 46 percent fall on Wednesday, reflecting reduced demand for products such as washing machines, fridges and computers as cash-strapped European consumers rein-in spending.

DSG, which runs Currys and PC World stores in Britain, Elkjop in the Nordic region and UniEuro in Italy, is expected to report profit before tax and one-off items of 43.1 million pounds for the year to May 2, according to a Reuters Estimates consensus of analyst forecasts, down from 205.3 million pounds the previous year.

The group said in April its underlying profit would be "no less" than 42 million pounds. DSG also forecast losses from businesses to be closed and charges before tax of 195 million to 215 million pounds.

The retailer's April cash call raised 311 million pounds to strengthen its finances, accelerate its store revamp plans and beef-up its advertising.

"We expect DSG to report that UK like-for-like sales growth has improved slightly in May and June" said analysts at JP Morgan in a research note.

KESA PROFITS HALVE

For Kesa, analysts are forecasting a consensus underlying pretax profit of about 69 million pounds for the year to April 30, according to Reuters Estimates, down from 128.5 million pounds in the previous year. 

Last month the group, which owns French market leader Darty, Comet in the UK and trades in another 10 nations, forecast annual profit in line with expectations despite sales falling faster in the first four months of 2009 than at the end of last year.

New chief executive Thierry Falque-Pierrotin, who succeeded Jean-Noel Labroue in January, is expected to detail his strategic plans for the retailer.

He said in May the group needed to address losses in Spain, build scale in Italy and Turkey, and develop initiatives to counter poor trading conditions.

Tuesday Kesa said it was close to selling its loss-making Swiss business, raising hopes of further disposals. Kesa is expected to pay a dividend of about 6 pence, down from 14.3 pence last year, but DSG has said it will not make any payment.

DSG and Kesa's shares have both underperformed the DJ Stoxx European retail index by about 30 percent over the last year.

DSG trades at 18.9 times forecast earnings, with Kesa on 16.1 times and market leader Metro AG (MediaMarkt) on 14.6 times.