The Carphone Warehouse, Europe’s largest mobile phone retailer, forecasts profits 35% up in the second quarter compared to the same period last year.
The Carphone Warehouse has been able to attract new mobile phone subscribers through its chain of 1,600 shops. New subscriptions have reportedly grown by 20 per cent in the second quarter. The total mobile phone connections grew by 15.1 per cent to 1.78 million by the end of September, while Carphone's TalkTalk fixed-line phone connections grew by 69,000.
Carphone also announced on October 12 that it was considering to bidding for One.Tel home phone businesses of Scottish Gas-owner Centrica and rival mobile retailer phones4U. it was
Stating that the company was not in a hurry, Roger Taylor, finance director said: "We are only serious if the price is right." The acquisitions would help the company to give a fillip to its customer growth at TalkTalk.
In the run-up to Christmas, the company is banking to benefit from more demand of prepaid subscriptions. The company is profiting from the fact that the premier mobile-phone maker Nokia is providing a host of new features which include higher-resolution cameras, video functions etc. Whatever be the network, the company gets recurring revenue per each subscription and also contract customer it signs up.
According to chief executive of Carphone, Charles Dunstone, the group was benefiting because of stiff competition among the network operators. He summed it up when he said: "… there is so much competition between the networks that we have been insulated from the consumer downturn."
The company said that it would be satisfied if the yearly average profits forecast went up to ₤126 million.
The company had recently launched its TalkTalk services in Ireland. It had already been operating in countries of Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland and Belgium.
Posted
on : Thu, 13 Oct 2005 11:25 GMT | Business News
By : Salim Patel
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