More on GUS
GUS: Q1 trading statement
The new from the retail business is much better than last year with Argos (38% of operating profit) returning to good like-for-like growth of 7%, although the smaller Homebase (7% of operating profit) continued its decline with like-for-like sales down 5%.
Experian (54% of operating profit) managed slightly lower organic growth (8%) than last year, but, as before, acquisitions added another 17% to sales.
At 1002p GUS is trading on a prospective PE of 15× with a 3.1% yield. This is reasonable against the sector for the retail business and looks fairly cheap for Experian’s high growth.
The coming separation of the two businesses will release value.
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