Shoes and virtual characters boost QXL's trading

By Kerstin Neuber

LONDON (Reuters) - Internet auction company QXL Ricardo Plc posted a 10 percent jump in first quarter trading profit thanks to strong trading in shoes and virtual gaming characters on its Polish website "Allegro".

The company, which provides online auctions and fixed-price sales in Poland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary and Ukraine, grew its Eastern European business by 70 percent in the first quarter.

"We want to be the leading player in Eastern Europe," Chief Executive Christian Unger told Reuters on Thursday. "And we will open up two or three more countries in Eastern Europe in the next quarter," he added.

QXL also said it had acquired a 30 percent stake in Russian online trading site Molotok.ru -- a business Finance Director Robert Dighero expects to be significant in 5 to 10 years' time.

"The Russian business won't be material to our group results for the current year because it is still a very early stage market," he added.

The firm, which is head-quartered in London, saw revenues grow by 49 percent to 15.2 million pounds in the first quarter to June 30, beating the expectations of Cazenove analysts who had been looking at 14.5 million pounds.

Trading profit rose to 3.4 million pounds from 3.1 million.

High trading volumes were registered in items like shoes, jewellery, accessories, fashion, cars and children's clothes, Dighero said, adding that 19 million transactions were done on QXL's websites in the first quarter.