December 18 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's largest food retailer Mercator expects its group net profit to fall to 40.556 million euro ($59.3 million) next year from 42.829 million euro projected for 2007, despite a planned rise in sales, the company said on Tuesday.
The group's pre-tax profit is projected to fall by 7.2% to 50.05 million euro, the company said in a statement but added that the profit figures for 2007 and 2008 were not comparable due to financial gains from the sale of business and financial property. Under comparable figures, the 2008 group pre-tax profit is expected to rise by 9.3%.
Mercator plans to raise its group sales by 9.5% to 2.628 billion euro next year.
The company expects its parent net profit to fall to 30.4 million euro next year from 32.6 million euro projected for this year. Parent sales are forecast to rise by 5.9% to 1.773 billion euro in 2008.
Shares in blue chip Mercator rose by 3.23% to an average price of 328.12 euro on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The company announced its plans for 2008 after the close of trading.
($ = 0.68 euro)