Currys owner agrees Link sale
The owner of electricals chain Currys today confirmed the sale of its 60% stake in struggling chain The Link to mobile phone firm O2 for £30m (€44m).
O2 already owns a 40% interest in The Link, a mobile phone retail business, which it inherited when it demerged from BT more than four years ago.
The transaction is expected to be completed by November and Dixons owner DSG International will assist O2 in managing The Link for a transitional period.
DSG chief executive John Clare said: “We believe that it is now the appropriate time to divest our interest in The Link, as we intensify our focus on our core market-leading operations in multi-channel electricals and computing retailing across Europe.”
Matthew Key, chief executive of O2 in the UK, added: “This agreement will allow us to accelerate our O2 store roll-out plans. By having more stores closer to more customers, we can interact with them more and thus provide an even better service.”
Yesterday, O2 said it added 474,000 customers in the UK in the second quarter, reinforcing its position as one of the country’s fastest growing networks.
O2, which is now owned by Spain’s Telefonica, currently has 16.8 million UK customers – up more than 15% on a year ago.
Given the growing number of customers, O2 updated its UK revenues growth forecasts to between 8% and 11% for the 11 months to December, up from the 6% to 9% previously indicated.
The Link chain has been facing tough competition from supermarkets and rivals such as Carphone Warehouse while mobile phone networks have been moving towards using their own stores or websites.
As it announced negotiations for the sale last month, DSG reported a 9% fall in pre-tax profits to £302.9 million for the year to April 29 compared with £332.5m (€487m) last year.
