WMT Walmart Inc

By Adriano Marchese

Asda, the U.K. grocer owned by Walmart Inc. (WMT), said Monday that pretax profit rose 13% in 2018, benefiting from its second consecutive year of positive like-for-like sales growth.

The third-largest grocer in the U.K. by market share said pretax profit was 804.9 million pounds ($1.01 billion), compared with GBP712.6 million the prior year.

Revenue for the year rose to GBP22.92 billion, compared with GBP22.22 billion in 2017. Total sales excluding fuel and VAT rose 2.1%, compared with 0.8% in 2017. Like-for-like sales, which exclude fuel and VAT, rose 1.6%, compared with 0.5%.

The company said it continues to strengthen its customer proposition, developing its online offer, and deliver a low cost operating model.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 16, 2019 09:52 ET (13:52 GMT)

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