April 22 (SeeNews) - Slovenian retailer Mercator [LJE:MELR] said its consolidated net loss widened to 44.5 million euro ($47.6 million) in 2014 from 16.9 million euro a year earlier.
Consolidated revenue declined by 4.1% to 2.6 billion euro in 2014, Mercator said in a bourse filing on Tuesday.
"Lower revenue is a result of closing down of underperforming sales units, decrease in overall retail area, changes in consumer shopping behaviour, and transfer of retail units in the markets of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Konzum as a part of the integration process of the Agrokor and Mercator Group in September 2014," Mercator said. "The loss of revenue is partly offset by the transfer of Agrokor's Idea units in Serbia to the company Mercator - S, d.o.o., completed in late November 2014," it added.
Croatian privately-held concern Agrokor closed the acquisition of a 53.1% stake in Mercator from a consortium of companies in June. In September, following a buyout, the Croatian company raised its stake in the Ljubljana-listed retailer to 80.75%.
Mercator Group's result from operating activities in 2014 was positive at 12.4 million euro, compared to 36 million euro a year earlier.
The step back in results from operating activities and higher loss for 2014 are mostly due to non-recurring events related to the takeover and the financial restructuring process, which includes impairments to real property and equipment as well as to intangible assets, other contingent or unforeseen costs related to the integration activities carried out with Agrokor Group, and the delay in the completion of the financial restructuring process, Mercator said.
Despite the highly competitive environment and challenging processes taking place at the Mercator Group during 2014, Mercator successfully maintained a stable market position and regular operations which continue to improve in 2015, it added.
In 2015, Mercator Group will continue to implement cost optimization measures to improve its profitability, it also said.
Mercator expects to turn to net profit of 59.6 million euro in 2015 on revenues of 2.8 billion euro.
($=0.9348 euro)
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