The first interim figures from Dixons Carphone were suspiciously better than expected. Earnings before interest, tax and other one-offs came in at £100 million, against a market consensus of £79 million and up 18 per cent, on a pro forma basis, on last time.
The numbers were always going to be hard to calculate because they include six months from Dixons and seven from Carphone Warehouse, as was. Plus, advisers were limited in how they could guide the market.
The suspicion, though, must be that the numbers in the market were left overcautious. There was no way the company wanted the horror of an undershoot in the first set of figures since the merger in the summer if sales had not gone well. In the