Sainsbury 3Q Sales Rise; Sees Fiscal Year 2018 Adjusted Pretax Profit Ahead of Consensus

J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN) said Wednesday that its same-store sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2018--which includes the key Christmas trading period--increased, and that it anticipates underlying pretax profit for the full year to be moderately ahead of consensus.

The consensus estimate for the grocer's fiscal 2018 underlying pretax profit was 559 million pounds ($757 million).

The U.K.'s second-biggest supermarket chain by market share said that like-for-like retail sales, excluding fuel, for the 15 weeks ended Jan. 6 rose 1.1% compared with the same period a year earlier.

Total retail sales, excluding fuel, increased 1.2% during the same 15-week period.

Sainsbury said that market conditions remain challenging and it is cautious about the consumer environment in the year ahead.

It also said that it now expects to achieve earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization synergies from its Argos acquisition of between GBP80 million and GBP85 million. The company had previously guided for Ebitda synergies of GBP65 million.

Sainsbury said it had a strong Christmas week, with record sales, as grocery sales increased 2.3% from a year earlier.

Write to Dimitrios Kontos at dimitrios.kontos@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 10, 2018 03:02 ET (08:02 GMT)