City File: Dixons

STANLEY KALMS of Dixons will this week reveal quite how lousy an acquisition Silo has been for the electrical stores group. The US operation has probably lost pounds 23m in the last year, on top of a pounds 17m deficit in the previous year.

Assuming Dixons books its pounds 10m of property profits on its Brussels office development, group pre-tax profits are likely to be pounds 80m, up from pounds 70.3m.

Most of the bad news on Silo is already in the shares. The UK Dixons and Currys shops continue to churn out a healthy 5 per cent like-for-like sales growth. And Mr Kalms may have good news on the performance of PC World, the recently bought computer stores. But the shares look fully priced at 19 times expected earnings. Hold.