Currys Plc U/Adr (CURYY) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everybody. We'll be quick. Bruce is going to take you through the numbers of a solid first half performance, and I'll say a few words on what's behind those numbers, and then we'll get straight into your questions. Bruce. Thank you, Alex. Good morning, everyone. So in a tough economic period and a soft market, we believe our first half results have been robust. Revenue at 4.2 billion is down 7% on a year-on-year basis, minus 4% on like-for-like. But despite the sales miss, our adjusted EBIT at 31 million is up by 7% year on year, and our adjusted EPS has improved by 15%. Our free cash flow in the first half, which is generally an outflow, is an outflow of 10 million, which is 76 million better year on year. Our movement in net debt is minus 32. That's 117 million better. And our total indebtedness, 1482, has improved by 135 million year on year. So stepping through each market, starting with the UK, revenue in the UK was 2.2 billion. That's minus 3% on a like for like basis to reflect a soft market. Our online share of business is flat. And our adjusted EBIT is down by 10 million from 25 to 15, partly as a result of lower sales, but most noticeably because of a loss of mobile settlement that went into our numbers in half one last year. Operating cash flow is back 5 million at 28, and segmental free cash flow after working capital is an outflow of 16 million due to working capital movements. Stepping through the UK EBIT bridge, our gross margin continues to improve in the UK for our third consecutive year. As you can see, a step forward of 10 basis points. And that's despite the fact that we had 11 million pounds of mobile settlement last year, which is part of the 35 million that we described to you at year end. Excluding that, our margin would have bee...