Carphone mulls Best Buy deal

Carphone Warehouse said it would consider buying out the stake in its European joint venture that is held by America's Best Buy if a bid for its United States partner succeeds.

Europe's biggest independent mobile phone retailer would be entitled to buy Best Buy's 50 per cent stake in the venture if Best Buy's founder Richard Schulze succeeds with a bid for the US retailer chain.

"Our shareholders would expect us to explore that, so we would," said Roger Taylor, Carphone Warehouse's chief executive.

a strong performance from Carphone's UK division pushed the group's pre-tax profits up by 30 per cent to £8.6m in the six months to September. "We have substantially increased our market share of UK post-pay volumes," Mr Taylor said.