Shares in French supermarket giant Carrefour (CA) have risen 2.5% to €30.89 thanks to continued sales growth in its second quarter.
An “excellent” performance in Latin America and accelerating sales in Spain pushed revenues between April and June up 4.2% to €21.4bn – excluding currency and petrol, organic growth came in at 2.6%.
Total sales for the first half to 30 June increased 5% to €42.3bn compared with a year ago – 2.9% on an organic basis – with international growth far outstripping the domestic market.
“It should be noted that in all three French divisions, Carrefour is performing better than 2013 and 2014; and continues to post positive like for likes in all three,” said Bruno Monteyne of Bernstein.
“Carrefour in past years has materially improved its French operation, which was no easy feat,” he added. “It also has a very strong retail business in Brazil, with a heavy bias to the best performing format in that country (cash & carry). Going forward it remains very exposed to unattractive formats (hypermarkets, supermarkets) in unattractive retail markets (Western Europe, France, China).”
Organic growth in France in the first half was 1.8% and 3.7% internationally, with like for likes (excluding petrol) up 1.7% and 2.2% respectively.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley said ongoing food price deflation in France had been offset in the second quarter by a positive mix effect and a higher share of national brands. However, sales momentum decelerated from the first three months of the year in the hypermarkets, with like for like sales at +0.5%, albeit against strong comparatives last year.
Supermarkets also deteriorated from +2.4% in the first quarter to +1.2% in the past three months.
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