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.
£341 million will be paid when the deal is completed, with additional payments on the first and second anniversaries of completion. In order to help with the funding, the company is issuing around 47 million new shares.
Carphone Warehouse has also announced results for the final quarter of its financial year, which ended on 31st March. Like-for-like revenue was up 6.5% for Q4, while connection figures were up 9.7%.
Roger Taylor, Chief Executive of Carphone Warehouse, said “Today we are announcing the end of our five year joint venture with Best Buy and with this the return of CPW Europe to its original shareholders. Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy have enjoyed a great relationship over the last five years ensuring that we shared and enjoyed many aspects of each other's business attributes. However, following the sale of our US interest last year, we have become increasingly responsible for the day-to-day operations of CPW Europe whilst conversely Best Buy have become more focused on their wholly-owned businesses. As a result, both parties have agreed that this is a good time for us to bring the joint venture to an end, whilst ensuring that our relationship remains in place by way of our global buying alliance.”
CPW Europe currently operates 2,377 stores with around 13,000 employees.