Carrefour confirms '11 earnings forecast after revealing flat Q4 sales

The company said fourth-quarter sales dipped by 0.8 percent in the last three months of the year to 24.15 billion euros (US$31.1 billion) but were up by 0.5 percent overall in 2011 thanks to stronger results in emerging markets.

Carrefour, which lowered its 2011 operating profit forecast three times last year, confirmed in a statement that the figure should now come in “at the lower end of the range of between -15 percent and -20 percent versus 2010.”

It stripped out the contribution of the DIA hard discount chain which has been sold off.

The retailer posted a 2010 operating profit of 2.97 billion euros, with hard discount units including DIA accounting for 232 million euros of the total.

“Carrefour posted slight full-year sales growth in 2011, supported by emerging markets, in spite of the economic slowdown that further impacted discretionary spending in the fourth quarter,” Chief Executive Lars Olofsson was quoted by the statement as saying.

Full-year sales in France excluding gasoline dropped by 1.2 percent, and were down by 4 percent in the rest of Europe at constant exchange rates.

Sales jumped by 10.1 percent in Latin America to 17.1 billion euros however, to account for 18.7 percent of the overall figure.

Asian sales gained 5.1 percent to 8.2 billion euros, or 8.9 percent of the total.

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