French retailer Darty confident for Christmas after 36 percent profit rise

By Dominique Vidalon and Pascale Denis

PARIS (Reuters) - Darty Plc (DRTY.L), Europe's No.3 electrical goods retailer, on Thursday posted higher first-half earnings and said sales had held up well in the past few weeks despite last month's Paris attacks.

Darty, the target of an agreed takeover bid by French books and music retailer Fnac (FNAC.PA), said it was confident for the peak Christmas season, though with high unemployment in its main French market, trading conditions remained volatile.

Darty, which competes with Metro's (MEOG.DE) Media-Saturn and Dixons Carphone (DC.L), posted a group retail profit for the six months ended Oct. 31 of 36.1 million euros (29 million pounds), a 36 percent rise from the same period a year ago.

Revenue rose 1.1 percent to 1.66 billion euros on a like-for-like basis, party reflecting a successful multi-channel strategy, involving online as well as physical stores, and efforts to improve product availability, Chief Executive Regis Schultz told Reuters.

Sales at Darty France, which account for 70 percent of total group revenue, rose 2.9 percent like-for-like.

Like its rivals, Darty, which said the Fnac bid was expected to be completed in or around mid 2016, has been battling weak consumer spending and competition from online retailers.

London-listed Darty, which has about 400 stores in Europe, has responded by cutting costs, exiting loss-making operations in Italy and Spain, Turkey and the Czech Republic, and focusing on its core markets of France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

It bought online company Mistergooddeal last year to enlarge its presence in the online retail sector.

Schultz said business at Darty stores suffered during the weekend after the Nov.13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured hundreds. But footfall was now back to normal in Paris, except in a dozen commercial malls.

Schutz said he was "rather confident" on prospects for the Christmas season, though a sustained improvement in consumer confidence in France largely hinged on a decline in jobless numbers.

France's unemployment rate rose to 10.6 percent in the third quarter, its highest quarterly rate since 1997.

(Editing by David Holmes)