CPW.L Share News (CPW)

Mobile phones seller Carphone Warehouse is waking up to the idea that entering a market in which established operators such as Dixons and Comet are already struggling may not have been a smart idea, with the group's Best Buy UK group suffering larger losses than anticipated.In its preliminary results announcement covering the year to the end of March, the group announced a 67% increase in earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to £63.3m from £38.0m a year earlier, despite the Best Buy UK "Big Box" mega-stores seeing losses before interest and tax expanding to £62.2m from £21.0m the year before.Carphone Warehouse had previously indicated the unit would lose between £50m and £55m."We're still trying to work out exactly what is the right format for selling consumer electronics within the UK. What are the right profit areas that we should be chasing," said Charles Dunstone, Carphone Warehouse's chairman, and co-founder of the company.On the positive side, the group's French joint venture with Virgin, Virgin Mobile France, moved into profit, with a headline net income of £8.2m versus a loss of £8.2m the year before, and the group's share of Best Buy Mobile US profits more than doubled from £46.4m to £97.9m.Group headline earnings per share (EPS) rose to 15.0p from 8.3p the year before, at the top end of the range of analysts' forecasts. The company's own earnings guidance was for EPS in the range of 14.5p to 15p.The company has declared a maiden dividend of 5.0p per share.--jh