Carphone Warehouse is planning to take over the European business that bears its name, which is actually a 50/50 joint venture set up with US-based retailer Best Buy in June 2008. It’s agreed to pay £471 million for the 50% of CPW Europe it doesn’t already own.

This 50% share in Carphone Warehouse was originally sold for around £1.1 billion as part of Best Buy’s European expansion.

Carphone Warehouse Group plc has published a trading update for the fourth quarter of its financial year.

Revenue at CPW Europe - the company’s 50% joint venture with Best Buy - were down 5.5%, while total connections were down 19%. Postpay connections were up in the UK, although the company estimates that the overall prepay market in Q4 was down 30-40% in the UK.

The Carphone Warehouse Group plc has published an interim management statement for the third quarter of its current financial year.

It says its business in Europe performed strongly on post-pay (‘pay monthly’ deals) and non-cellular products, although a weakness in the lower-value prepay market resulted in like-for-like revenue being down by 4.7% when compared with the previous year. Overall, figures for the full year are expected to be in line with previous guidance.