Retail players: Global retail major, Ceconomy, does not expect to take further write-downs on its 24 per cent stake in the French retailer group Fnac Darty, Kai-Ulrich Deissner, CFO at Ceconomy, told the Boersen-Zeitung newspaper, indicating that it would keep the holding.

The stake, which has a current market value of around 162 million euros, had been written down to a "conservative value", he said.

In December, the German retail firm said that it had written down the value of the stake by 82 million euros in the fourth-quarter.

"From today's perspective, we therefore assume that no further value adjustment will be necessary in the foreseeable future," he said. 

When asked whether Ceconomy would be willing to sell the stake, Deissner said the company had a "strategic" view on the holding and that there was no reason to change that.