November 15 (SeeNews) - Slovenian retailer Mercator [LJE:MELR] said on Wednesday it swung to a consolidated net profit of 9.9 milion euro ($11.7 million) in the first nine months of 2017, from a loss of 1.7 million euro a year earlier.
The Mercator Group generated 1.73 billion euro of revenue in January-September, which is 2.7% less than in the corresponding period of the year before, while EBITDA rose 14.6% on the year to 89.2 million euro, it said in a filing with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
Core activity had a positive effect on the Mercator Group revenue.
"In the markets of Slovenia and Montenegro, our revenue from sales of goods was higher relative to the same period last year. In the Serbian market, retail revenue was lower, especially due to closing down the units in compliance with the market regulator's decision; however, the current trends are positive," Mercator explained.
The drop of overall revenue was affected particularly by the optimization of wholesale channels, it added.
Mercator noted that all of its figures exclude divested activities. Last year, the retailer disposed of its Modiana-branded apparel and drug stores to Montecristo SL, as well as of its Intersport Group and the Intersport licence for the Western Balkan region to a Polish-based private equity fund.
Mercator re-entered the Bosnian market formally in October, by gradually taking over the retail operations at 83 stores from its peer Konzum BH.
The Mercator Group invested 36.6 million euro into property, plant, and equipment in the first nine months of 2017. Of this amount, 38.8% was used for investments in Slovenia and 61.2% was used for investments in international markets.
At the end of September, the retailer had 1,262 units in Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, in which it employed 20,795 workers - up 2.2% compared to end-2016 number.
($=0.846149 euro)