PARIS (Reuters) – Casino on Friday said it was confident it would recover sales momentum this year in France as the pandemic eases and improve cash flow generation after reporting a 12% fall in 2021 group operating profit to 1.193 billion euros ($1.34 billion).
The French retailer, which has been selling assets to cut debt, said it now aimed to complete the final 1.3 billion euros chunk of its 4.5 billion euros disposal plan by the end of 2023.
The group’s profit fall reflected a 14% decline in the core profit of the French market, where sales fell 5.4% on a same store basis, while sales remained robust in Brazil, Casino’s second-largest market.
Total group sales reached 30.549 billion euros, down 0.8% on a same-store basis.
($1 = 0.8915 euros)
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon , editing by Tassilo Hummel)