management's explanation of the losses

The financial data published this Thursday afternoon in Paris by the large northern distributor seem encouraging despite the difficulties encountered by the brand in France and Russia. Auchan Holding comprises the commercial activities (Auchan Retail, the stores) and the real estate subsidiary Ceetrus (formerly Immochan). At the purely accounting level, the results of the holding are bad at – 1.3 billion euros. Management Comment: " We knew it because we sold the very deficit activity of our stores in Italy and sold those of Viet-Nam. These exceptional items aside, we note a positive reversal of our margin in 9 of the 12 other countries ". Taiwan is stable, Russia (-2.1%) and France are still in the red, at -1.3% of EBITDA (pre-tax profit) for the latter while the Asian region is also declining, to – 5%. Globally, at June 30, 2019, Auchan Retail's sales amounted to € 22.7 billion, down 2.4% at current exchange rates for all countries. And overall, the net profit that measures profitability amounts to € 124 million over the first six months of the year for the holding company. For Auchan Retail (stores), EBITDA totaled € 768 million, up 12%. It has almost doubled in France.

Italian shower

Confidence seems so de rigueur, despite the loss of profitability of the holding company. The sale of the 1,600 stores for 3.6 billion euros in sales volumes at 1 July was the cost to clean up our future general accounts According to management. The Italian subsidiary did not earn any more money since 2011 and the Auchan group had to give up the recapitalization with 2.5 years of losses, in addition to the abandonment of the unreimbursed financings and the loss of numbers. business since January 1st. " So, continues the direction, these combined elements have generated a shortfall for the holding of 1.4 billion euros, is to accept losing a lot in one go to stop losing thereafter ".

In France, 21 stores are being closed or disposed of, a decision too recent to impact the results of the first half.