By Paul Jarvis - Nov 7, 2011 3:36 PM GMT+0700
Carphone Warehouse Group Plc (CPW), Europe’s largest mobile-phone retailer, plans to sell its stake in its U.S. and Canadian joint venture to partner Best Buy Co. Inc. for 838 million pounds ($1.34 billion).
As much as 813 million pounds of the proceeds will be returned to shareholders through the issue to investors of Class B shares, the London-based company said today in a statement.
Carphone Warehouse also said its Best Buy Europe unit will close all 11 “big box” stores in the U.K. after the outlets posted a wider first-half loss of 46.7 million pounds.
The Best Buy Mobile venture was formed in 2006 with the intention of introducing a store chain in the U.S. offering customers a variety of network options. The unit has dedicated areas inside all Best Buy’s 1,106 U.S. large-format stores and 247 smaller standalone outlets. Its 5 percent market share compares with 1 percent when it started, Carphone Warehouse said in June.
Carphone Warehouse rose as much as 11 percent to 383.3 pence in London trading and was up 2 percent at 8:34 a.m.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Jarvis in London at pjarvis@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Jarvis at pjarvis@bloomberg.net
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