LONDON (Alliance News) - Carphone Warehouse Group PLC reiterated its full-year guidance Tuesday, as it saw like-for-like revenue growth in the third quarter ended December 28, 2013, and saw encouraging progress on its sales of 4G services.
Mobile-device retailer expects full-year headline earnings per share of between 17 pence and 20 pence, and expects headline earnings before interest and tax of between GBP140 million and GBP160 million.
The company said that, whilst market conditions in Europe remained challenging, it was encouraged by customer demand for 4G services. It expects this demand to continue gaining momentum as 4G networks are expanded across Europe.
However, whilst the market transitions to 4G, the volumes of customers signing set contracts for mobile phone packages remained subdued, Carphone said. The UK pay-as-you go market continued to decline, down around 25% to 30% in the quarter from the year before, which led to Carphone's pay-as-you-go connections dropping 13% during the third quarter.
Despite these factors, the company saw like-for-like revenue growth of 3.1%, with like-for-like sales in the UK up 5% during the quarter.
The company's business-to-business segment, Connected World Services, made good progress during the quarter, Carphone said, as it saw encouraging responses from manufacturers, networks and retailers to its services.
Its joint venture with Virgin Group, Virgin Mobile France, continued to be resilient with a stable set contract customer base during the quarter of 1.3 million customers, although revenue declined 15.6% year on year. Carphone said this revenue decline is expected to slow in the fourth quarter.
Shares in Carphone Warehouse traded up 1.0%, or 2.70 pence, at 282.50 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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