Carrefour lifts profit but shares drop

International supermarket group Carrefour achieved a sharp profit increase in the first half of the year. Net profit rose 16.7 per cent to 274 million euros ($367 million) and the current operating profit rose by 7.9 per cent to 833 million euros. This was achieved on a 1.7-per cent fall in sales to 40.3 billion euros. Business in Latin America was undermined by unfavourable exchange rates, and in Asia operating profit had fallen by 15.2 per cent to 83 million euros mainly because of ‘frugal consumption’ in China, the group said. The price of shares in the group was down 4.81 per cent to 25.82 euros in mid-day trading. The overall French market was down by 0.56 per cent. If this factor were flattened out, sales rose by 4.9 per cent which it said represented the best figure for internal growth for five years. The group did not provide guidance for the year, although earlier this month it said that analysts' overall expectation of an operating profit of 2.38 billion euros for the year was ‘reasonable’, according to AFP.