Groupe Casino (EPA: CO) 1Q18 Trading Update: French Food Sales, Hypermarkets Help Performance

Executive Summary

• Groupe Casino reported a 3.8% decline in sales in 1Q18 to €8.90 billion, slightly below the consensus estimate of €8.91 billion, and impacted by foreign-exchange effects of (7.7)%.
• Stripping out exchange rate, fuel and calendar effects, organic sales growth for the group was 3.1% and comparable sales growth was 1.8%.
• Comparable sales grew by 1.7% in France, including the Cdiscount e-commerce banner, and by 1.9% in Latin America.

Note: Groupe Casino completed the sale of its Thailand and Vietnam businesses in 1H16 and began the process of selling Via Varejo and its subsidiary, Cnova Brazil, in November 2016. The company has restated its financial statements from 1Q15 to 4Q16 to exclude the impact of these events.

A new accounting standard IFRS 15, which provides guidance on accounting for revenues from contracts with customers, came into effect on January 1, 2018. Groupe Casino has restated its 1Q17 sales based on this accounting standard,for a fair comparison with its latest results.