Danone Shares Slip After 3Q Sales Update
October 17 2018 - 5:00AM
Dow Jones News
By Anthony Shevlin
Shares in Danone SA (BN.FR) fell Wednesday after the French
company released its third-quarter sales update which showed a
strong negative hit from currency effects.
Sales for the three months ending Sept. 30 came to 6.19 billion
euros ($7.17 billion) compared with EUR6.47 billion a year earlier.
Although sales fell 4.4% on a reported basis, Danone said
like-for-like sales grew 1.4%.
At 0829 GMT, shares in Danone traded at EUR62.69, down 3.6%.
Danone said sales were affected by the appreciation of the euro
against the Turkish lira, Argentine peso and Brazilian real.
Danone Chief Executive Emmanuel Faber said: "We have the
foundations in place to navigate current emerging-market volatility
and currency headwinds, which will enable us to continue to deliver
sustainable profitable growth."
Danone said the increasingly complex situation in Argentina
makes it hard to predict what may happen in the future. The company
said it will no longer include the country in its like-for-like
sales reporting from 2019 due to the effect of hyperinflation.
Chief Financial Officer Cecile Cabanis said the performance
trend in Argentina, which contributed 2.1% of Danone's net sales in
3Q, was improving during the quarter and the company expects the
full-year sales growth to exceed the 0.3% rise recorded in the
first nine months of the year.
Analysts at Citi said Danone's like-for-like sales in the
quarter were up on consensus but "marked by rather extreme
inflexions in its story."
Bryan Garnier said the slowdown in specialized nutrition, which
has posted strong growth as of late, was stronger than
expected.
Write to Anthony Shevlin at anthony.shevlin@dowjones.com;
@anthony_shevlin
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 17, 2018 04:45 ET (08:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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