26 Jan 2018 14:03

Magnit net profit drops 42% in Q4, below forecast

MOSCOW. Jan 26 (Interfax) - Russian retailer Magnit saw net profit drop 41.7% in Q4 2017 year-on-year to 7.859 billion rubles, the company said in unaudited results prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The result was below the expectations of analysts, who told Interfax in a consensus forecast that the net profit in the quarter would be 10.356 billion rubles.

Magnit saw EBITDA contract 18.9% to 22.325 billion rubles, with EBITDA margin down to 7.9% from 9.7% in the previous year. These indicators were lower than forecasts of 25.899 billion rubles and of 8.2%.

The retailer's gross profit in Q4 2017 was down 1.9% to 76.84 billion rubles, with the gross margin down to 25.4% from 27.5% the previous year.

Magnit's revenue in Q4 was up 6.2% to 302.3 billion rubles.

The retailer's revenue for the year was up 6.4% to 1.143 trillion rubles. The dynamics underperformed not only the consensus forecast, with analysts on average assuming 7.7% growth in the company's FY revenue, but also the retailer's own forecast, which had envisaged growth of 8%-10%.

Magnit's net profit in 2017 was down 34.7% to 35.53 billion rubles, with EBITDA down 14.9% to 91.78 billion rubles and EBITDA margin down to 8% from 10% in 2016.