Carrefour 4Q Sales Fall; French Competitive Environment Remains Tough

Carrefour SA (CA.FR) said Wednesday that sales decreased in the fourth quarter, in part due to the competitive environment in France.

The French retailer said sales for the period fell by 0.2% to 23.3 billion euros ($28.5 billion) at current exchange rates, compared with analyst expectations provided by the company of EUR23.2 billion. Like-for-like sales rose 1.9%, excluding petrol and calendar.

Sales in France fell 0.5% to EUR10.7 billion in the fourth quarter, reflecting a "persistently competitive environment," said Carrefour. An analyst consensus provided by the company expected sales of EUR10.5 billion. On a like-for-like basis sales in France rose 1.5%.

Carrefour said total sales for 2017 rose 3% to EUR88.2 billion, helped by non-food sales.

The company said it expects its recurring operating profit to be about EUR2 billion in 2017, a drop of about 15% at current exchange rates.

Carrefour releases its full-year 2017 results on Feb 28.

Write to Anthony Shevlin at anthony.shevlin@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 17, 2018 12:30 ET (17:30 GMT)