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Portugal's Sonae Ekes Out Q3 Profit As Sales Rise On Easing Lockdown

By Dayeeta Das
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Portugal's Sonae Ekes Out Q3 Profit As Sales Rise On Easing Lockdown

Portugal's largest retailer Sonae eked out a 1.6% rise in third-quarter net profit on robust sales as the economy emerged out of a lockdown, helping it rebound from a loss in the preceding three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group, which runs around 300 Continente hypermarkets and large supermarkets, Worten consumer electronics stores, Sportzone stores and other retail chains, said its net profit reached €51 million ($60 million) in July-September.

Consolidated sales rose 5.9% to €1.77 billion in the third quarter, with sales from the food retail unit Sonae MC increasing 7.4% to €1.34 billion euros, the company said.

'Resilient Performance'

"In this context of the pandemic, Sonae continued to show a very resilient performance," Sonae's chief executive officer Claudia Azevedo said in a statement, highlighting the company's ability "to innovate and adapt quickly".

Portugal's GDP, in which private consumption makes up about two-thirds, expanded 13.2% in the third quarter, rebounding from a record slump of 13.9% in April-June marked by a nationwide lockdown, although it still contracted sharply from a year ago due to the pandemic.

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Some restrictions are still in effect after the lockdown and new ones have been introduced recently.

Sonae said its underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), rose 8.6% to €177 million between July and September from a year ago, while the underlying EBITDA margin - a measure of profitability - increased 0.2 percentage points to 10%.

The company also reduced its net debt by 19% to €1.23 billion in September from a year ago.

News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.

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