Russian food retailer O'Key 2014 net profit up 5 percent
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian food retailer O'Key posted a 5 percent rise in 2014 net profit to 5.2 billion roubles (58 million pounds), helped by a tax refund, it said on Thursday.
The company said its income tax expenses fell by 42 percent last year as a result of a tax reimbursement of around 1 billion roubles it had paid for 2010-2013, while profit before income tax was down 7.8 percent.
Pretax income was hit by a foreign exchange loss of 688 million roubles on a dollar loan, as well as a spike in financing costs as its debt rose 88 percent to 32 billion roubles.
The company also said its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed 2.2 percent to 11.3 billion roubles, with its EBITDA margin sliding to 7.4 percent from 7.9 percent a year earlier.
Revenues grew 9 percent to 152 billion roubles, primarily driven by increased selling space, while like-for-like sales were down 0.2 percent.
O'Key, which operates hypermarkets and supermarkets, had seen customers leave in favour of budget retailers last year as Russia's economy weakened and a slump in the rouble fuelled inflation.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Vladimir Soldatkin and Mark Potter)
