NETHERLANDS & BELGIUM – Ahold and Delhaize, the two merging European retail giants, posted encouraging financial results in their most recent separately announced earnings reports.
During its fourth quarter of 2015, Ahold said that its net income increased 16 percent to $279 million from $241 million a year before, driven by a 21 percent boost in revenue to $10.8 billion. Underlying operating income increased 39 percent to $463 million, beating the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg by €39 million.
For the full fiscal 2015 year, Ahold reported that its net income increased 43.1 percent to $936 million from $653 million a year prior. Revenue increased 16.6 percent to $41.8 billion from $35.2 billion in 2014.
“In the United States, we grew sales excluding gas by 4.1%, adjusted for an additional week,” said Ahold CEO Dick Boer. “We continue to make good progress with our investments in quality and price, highlighted by growth in identical sales and market share gains, primarily in the New York Metro market where we further strengthened our position with the successful conversion of 25 former A&P stores.”
Delhaize, meanwhile, said that its net profit increased to $125 million in the fourth quarter, while its revenue increased 9.1 percent to $6.9 billion.
For the full fiscal 2015 year, Delhaize said that its net income increased to $406 million and its revenue increased 14.2 percent to $26 billion.
“For 2016, our main focus is to complete the merger with Royal Ahold on schedule,” said Frans Muller, Delhaize Group CEO. “We are confident on the prospects of the merger given the complementarity of our store networks, the opportunity to accelerate innovation for our customers and the €500 million run-rate synergy potential. The next step in the merger process will be the Extraordinary General Meetings of both companies scheduled on March 14.”
Recently, Ahold announced that His Majesty the King of the Netherlands has honored its request to use the predicate “Koninklijke” (“Royal”) after its intended merger with Delhaize Group. The name of the combined company will be “Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V.”
As more details are revealed about Ahold and Delhaize’s pending merger, stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for more details.
