Carrefour, the world's second largest large-scale retail group, will close 2011 in the red. The French retailer recorded a net loss of 249 million euros in the first half of the year: a very bad result if compared with the profit of 97 million euro for the same period last year. Analysts had not expected Carrefour to report positive figures, but the loss exceeded even the most pessimistic forecasts (31 million according to the consensus of Dow Jones Newswires).
This result forced the Group to revise downwards its operating profit outlook for 2011, cutting its estimates by 15%. The price reduction policy, which the retailer has initiated to reverse the loss of market shares in France and Europe, will also weigh on the accounts at the end of the year. In the first trading on the Paris Stock Exchange, the stock lost more than 4%, below the threshold of 18 euros per share.
"Carrefour recorded sales growth in the first half of 2011, thanks to emerging markets, but the results were not satisfactory, with a disappointing performance of France and important non-current expenses", said the managing director of the Group, Lars Olofsson. In fact, turnover has slightly increased to 39,6 billion euros, from 38,71 billion in the same period last year.
In the first half of the year, recurring operating income decreased by 22% to 772 million euros. This result "mainly reflects the negative performance of France, Greece and Italy," explained Olofsson. The results for these first six months were affected by non-current expenses of 884 million euros, of which 516 million euros in asset depreciation charges and 490 million euros in tax charges. Of the latter, 268 million were set aside in exceptional stocks for tax risk in Spain, the Group specified.
