Plain sailing for Arcadia as takeover talks end

Strong sales and the end of distracting takeover talks are expected to boost Arcadia's interim results next Thursday.

Pre-tax profits are expected to surge to £52m (€84.9m) from £29.1m (€47.5m).

A trading statement released by the group in January showed an 8% jump in sales in strong Christmas trading.

Like-for-like sales of core brands Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Evans, Wallis, Tops and Miss Selfridge for the 19 weeks to January 5 rose 9.4%.

In February, Arcadia rebuffed a takeover bid from Icelandic company Baugur, which had been stalking the group since October last year.

Baugur is a principal franchisee for Arcadia in Scandinavia, with 15 stores and plans to increase this throughout Sweden and Denmark by the end of the year.

Arcadia's strong trading has prompted broker Williams de Broe to trim its year-end debt forecast to £40m (€65.3m).

Tom Gadsby, of Williams de Broe, said: "Following Arcadia's ending of talks with Baugur, the shares have had a good run.

"With the distraction of Baugur now gone, the management can concentrate on driving shareholder value."