Retail giant Kingfisher is remained tight-lipped about plans to shake up its DIY and electrical businesses, as it reported a five per cent rise in annual pre-tax profits.

Chief executive Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy said the group, which owns B&Q and Comet in the UK, was looking at "key strategic issues".

But he added: "We have nothing to add. We will only make any announcements when there are any conclusions."

Speculation had been growing that Kingfisher was preparing to announce a major rights issue to raise cash to take control of the French DIY chain Castorama.

The group owns 55 per cent of the struggling business but only has 50 per cent voting rights and as such does not exercise management control.

Analysts believe Kingfisher is also considering the sale of its electricals division, including Comet and French chain Darty.

Sir Geoffrey said: "The most important thing is to take the right course of action. Investors would be happier with us taking time to make decisions."

Kingfisher's results showed the retailer improved pre-tax profits by five per cent to £560.1m before one-off costs in the year to February 2.

An "outstanding year of growth" at B&Q helped total sales across the business' ongoing operations rise by 11 per cent to £9.62bn.

Kingfisher said Castorama continued to struggle, however, with like-for-like sales growth a "disappointing" 0.5 per cent.

Sir Geoffrey said the group was continuing to work with the management at the chain to "get the potential out of the business".

He added: "I'm absolutely confident the potential can be obtained and we are making quite good progress in a number of areas."

Sales across Kingfisher's electrical and furniture business, the third largest in Europe, rose 6.2 per cent to £3.8bn.

Comet registered like-for-like growth of 5.2 per cent on strong sales of large-screen televisions, DVD players and games consoles.