French supermarket Casino saw its 2009 profits slip. (Photo: Stock File)

Casino's international sales drop in 2009

FRANCE
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 01:20 (GMT + 9)

French supermarket chain Casino announced a fall in profits of 4.5 per cent in 2009 due to the poor economy in France and investments in store base optimisation. It has regardless vowed to gain market share as well as cut costs and finish its disposal of EUR 1 billion of assets this year.

National sales skid by 3.8 per cent, or 2.7 per cent ex petrol, while convenience formats fared well with a sales drop of 1.7 per cent and margins remaining at 4.9 per cent. Leader Price in the discount sector was negatively impacted by consumers' frugal spending habits, and costs were effectively controlled elsewhere.

CDiscount and Banque Casino, among Casino's other businesses, performed positively with organic sales up 6.8 per cent, buoyed up by CDiscount's “’strong performance.’”

Internationally, South America and Asia stood out at 5.7 per cent and 5.1 per cent, respectively. Total international trading profit climbed by 12 per cent and Brazil did particularly well, with same-store sales rising 12.7 per cent.

“In a difficult economic environment, Casino recorded solid results in 2009 while significantly improving its financial flexibility,” said Jean-Charles Naouri, Chairman and CEO of Casino. “Far-reaching action has been taken by our teams over several years to establish the Group in the most promising retail formats and geographic markets, and this action is continuing to pay off.”

"Our leadership positions, solid fundamentals and expansion programmes position the group for growth and market share gains in 2010 and beyond," he added.

Casino said it will boost price promotions in France and accelerate expansion in convenience and discount stores. Its 2010 goal is a net debt to EBITDA ratio of less than the 2.2 times it reached at the end of last year, Reuters reports.

Asset sales include the sale of its stake in Dutch supermarket group Super de Boer, which helped reduce net debt by EUR 779 million in 2009 to EUR 4.072 billion, or 2.2 times EBITDA. The figures were much better than the estimated cut by several analysts of around EUR 400 million.

"Solid set of numbers and going in the right direction," said RBS analyst Justin Scarborough.

Casino said underlying EBIT fell 4.5 per cent to EUR 1.21 billion in 2009. The company planned to hike its dividend by 4.7 per cent to EUR 2.65 after its net income rose 8.6 per cent to EUR 543 million.

Margins fell in Venezuela as President Hugo Chavez expropriated Casino’s Exito chain.

Casino runs 10,000 stores in 10 countries. Its brands include the Hyper Casino hypermarkets, Franprix and Monoprix supermarkets, Petit Casino convenience stores and CDiscount Internet shopping.

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- French-Colombian supermarket to be nationalised
- Jumbo to purchase Super de Boer

By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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