Carphone Warehouse profits up 62%

Mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse reported a 62% surge in annual profits on Tuesday and announced a £54m purchase of French telecoms firm Communications De Mobile Cellulaires SA (CMC).

Pre-tax profit rose to £49.6m in the year ended 31 March - slightly ahead of market expectations - from £30.6m a year before.

Analysts had forecast a pre-tax profit of £47 to £49.2m.

The company said it was not proposing a dividend for the period as it plans to retain earnings for continued investment in the development of the group and the future enhancement of shareholder value.

Carphone Warehouse's shares have lost about a third of their value since the company floated last year.

But founder and chief executive Charles Dunstone said the company had been hit by bad news in the rest of the telecom sector.

He told BBC Breaksfast: "If Motorola or Ericsson say they are closing a factory, people assume we are selling less phones.

"It is not true. It just means we are selling less Ericsson phones.

"At the moment, we are just getting lumped in with the rest of the telecom sector."