British retailer GUS to demerge Burberry group

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2005

LONDON (AFP) — British retail group GUS announced it planned to demerge its 66 percent stake in luxury goods group Burberry later this year to existing shareholders, alongside news of steady annual profits.

The company also disclosed its intention to separate the retail division, which includes catalogue retailer Argos and home-improvement chain Homebase, from credit-checking arm Experian.

"The board recognises that there is no strategic logic in maintaining the Argos retail group, Experian and Burberry within the same group in the long term," GUS chairman Victor Blank said Wednesday in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

"While the separation of Argos and Experian will be undertaken at the right time in the future, the board has decided that it is...