France's Carrefour unveils hefty net loss and cuts dividend
PARIS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer, on Wednesday said its operating profit fell for the second straight year, as earnings dropped sharply in its core French market.
he company, which is Europe’s biggest retailer, also cut its 2017 dividend by 34 percent after it unveiled a net loss of 531 million euros ($648 million), following non-recurring charges of 1.3 billion euros.
It said the weak results demonstrated the necessity of implementing the five-year overhaul plan it presented last month.
Its 2017 recurring operating profit fell 14.7 percent to 2.006 billion euros.
This was broadly in line with a median forecast of 1.99 billion euros in an Inquiry Financial poll of analysts for Reuters, and the company’s guidance for about 2 billion euros.
Carrefour announced last month plans to cut costs and jobs, boost E-commerce investment and seek a partnership in China with Tencent in a bid to boost profits and revenues and help it tackle competition from Amazon.
$1 = 0.8190 euros Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta
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