Companies: CC.    MRT    PEA   

Interim figures from lastminute.com reveal that the beleaguered e-tailer's French and UK businesses reached operational profitability three months earlier than expected, writes Elliott Davis.

In the six months to March, techMARK-listed lastminute.com (LMC) reduced losses by £10 million to £19.8 million, while turnover surged 65 per cent to £11.5 million, and subscriber numbers rose 60 per cent to five million. Second quarter operating cash outflows fell from £9.1 million to £1.4 million and £36.5 million (£46.6 million) is left in the company's coffers.

Having consistently improved its performance on a quarterly basis, lastminute is beginning to convince the City that it can, and will, make the e-tailing model work. As such, its share price has doubled in recent months to 87.75p, up 3p on the day, consigning September's 18.5p low to distant memory.

However, analysts say lastminute's market capitalisation of £153 million is still expensive, relatively. Clinton Cards (CC.), Merchant Retail (MRT) and Peacocks (PEA), for example, all boast similar market valuations (of around £150 million) and should produce respective profits of £24.4 million, £10 million and £16.1 million at their next year ends.