Electricals group Kesa showed off its French business Darty to analysts last week to demonstrate some of the growth avenues open there.

Shares in the retailer, which also owns UK chain Comet, rose over the week.

Seymour Pierce analyst Kate Calvert said Darty’s service-led model is “the foundation of management’s recovery strategy outside France” but remained cautious and rates Kesa a hold. She said: “The issue for the shares remains the deterioration of Comet’s UK market position, a struggling Spanish business and limited scale elsewhere. We continue to prefer Dixons.”

Investec analyst David Jeary, also advising hold, said: “The presentation succeeded in demonstrating that there are still growth levers to pull, albeit with a market background that seems to be deteriorating again, particularly in the UK and Spain.”

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