Debenhams
4.4% Estimated dividend yield
The market plainly got Debenhams wrong. The market got Wm Morrison wrong, too, for different reasons. Other retailers seem to have had a decent enough Christmas, contrary to expectations. Whether this is a general trend remains to be seen.
The market should not have got Debenhams wrong because its decent performance over the season was entirely down to management, under Michael Sharp, its departing chief executive, doing what it said it would.
It improved, from a low base, the operations in Denmark and Ireland. There are no detailed figures, but the fact that there was a significant currency effect between reported like-for-like sales in the run-up to Christmas and those on a current currency basis suggest that those overseas operations