By Cristina Roca 
 

Inditex (ITX.MC) said Wednesday that nine-month net profit and sales both grew.

The owner of the Zara chain of stores said net profit from February to October was 2.44 billion euros ($2.77 billion), compared with EUR2.34 billion a year earlier. The result came a smidge short of analysts' expectations of net profit of EUR2.46 billion, according to a consensus estimate provided by FactSet.

The Spanish fashion retailer's nine-month sales rose 2.6% to EUR18.43 billion. Analysts had seen sales for the period at EUR18.72 billion, according to a FactSet estimate.

Gross margin for the period was 58%, up from 57.4% the previous year, the company said. Inditex said its gross margin grew thanks to its operational efficiency, citing its decision "not to participate in the promotional activity widely seen in the sector since September."

The Spanish retailer said it was backing its guidance of 4%-6% like-for-like sales growth as well as its gross margin guidance for the second half of the fiscal year ending January.

Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@dowjones.com; @_cristinaroca

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2018 01:37 ET (06:37 GMT)

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