Slovenia's Mercator eyes 77 mln euro cons net profit in 2016, to exit Bulgaria, Albania

In 2013, Mercator plans to post a consolidated net profit of 3.0 million euro on revenues of 2.9 billion euro.

Group revenues are forecast to grow at an average annual rate of 3.5% in 2012-2016. Growth will initially be slower but will pick up pace after 2014, which is consistent with the expected changes in the macroeconomic indicators on the markets of Mercator's operations and with the planned investment and divestment activities, the retailer said after its supervisory board approved its medium-term strategy.

Away from its home market, the Slovenian group is currently present in Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"In the medium-term period, we are planning to focus on the strategically relevant markets and to gradually withdraw from the markets of Albania and Bulgaria which are of lesser strategic relevance," Mercator said.

The group plans to invest 50 million euro each in 2013 and 2014, a further 80 million in 2015 and 100 million euro in 2016.

Mercator said it plans to boost its market share by favouring supermarkets and smaller store formats at the expense of traditional retail in Serbia, Montenegro and in Bosnia and by stabilizing the revenue of major formats in Serbia. In Croatia, the Getro store format will be scaled down.

($=0.7654 euro)