PARIS (Reuters) - Carrefour , the world's second-largest retailer, said it would boost capital spending this year, highlighting its commitment to reviving its struggling European hypermarkets and expanding in the emerging markets of China and Brazil.
Europe's biggest retailer also hiked its 2013 dividend by 7 percent to 0.62 euros per share after operating profit rose 5.3 percent, slightly above analysts expectations.
The performance reflected a sharp improvement in the profitability of the core French business as a turnaround plan started to pay off, as well as robust growth in Latin America, though Spain, Italy and Asia were weak.
CARREFOUR (CA.PA) which is battling to reverse years of underperformance in Europe, said it would invest between 2.4 billion and 2.5 billion euros to renovate and expand stores this year against 2.2 billion last year, above analysts' expectations of 2.2 billion for 2014.
The world's second-biggest retailer behind Wal-Mart
Carrefour, which has been selling non-core assets to raise cash to defend positions in key markets of western Europe, China and Brazil and strengthen its balance sheet, said net debt fell by 203 million euros to 4.12 billion at end-2013.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by James Regan)
Relacionados
- Lavrov dice que EEUU y UE "no han cumplido sus obligaciones en Ucrania"
- El tesoro espera colocar el jueves hasta 5.000 millones en bonos y obligaciones
- El tesoro subasta el jueves bonos y obligaciones
- Botella remarca que ante las obligaciones de pago de deuda "hay que reducir patrimonio"
- Ayuntamiento de Valladolid considera que el PSOE critica el trabajo para que se cumplan las "obligaciones tributarias"
