MEXICO CITY—Retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico posted its strongest
sales growth in almost three years during the second quarter,
although its net profit fell from a year earlier when the sale of
its restaurant business had boosted the bottom line.
Walmex, as the unit of Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is
known, reported net profit of 6.81 billion pesos ($426 million) in
the April-June period, compared with 10.42 billion pesos a year
earlier. In the second quarter of 2014, net profit benefited from
the sale of Walmex's restaurant chain for 8.2 billion pesos. In the
second quarter of this year, the retailer closed the sale of its
bank unit Banco Walmart to Grupo Financiero Inbursa for 3.6 billion
pesos.
Excluding the effects of the two sales, second-quarter net
profit this year was up 5.3%.
Sales in the quarter rose 9.9% to 114.4 billion pesos, the
biggest increase since the third quarter of 2012. The recovery
after several years of lukewarm growth has been helped by a pickup
in overall consumption in Mexico. Retail association Antad, of
which Walmex is a member, reported same-store sales growth of 5.7%
in the second quarter, with total sales up 9.5% from a year
before.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization,
or Ebitda, a measure of operating cash flow, rose 6.7% to 10.29
billion pesos.
Net profit beat the 5.85 billion-peso median estimate of six
equities analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal. Sales and
Ebitda were in line with expectations of 114.3 billion pesos and
10.6 billion pesos, respectively.
Walmex shares closed down 0.5% at 39.68 pesos ahead of the
report.
Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
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