Walmart de Mexico reports 10% jump in quarterly sales, but EBITDA dips

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Walmart’s Mexico unit reported second quarter revenue of 169 billion pesos ($7.4 billion) on Thursday, a 10% jump over the year-earlier period helped by more grocery shopping amid stay-at-home measures meant to contain the coronavirus.

Still, Walmart de Mexico , the biggest retailer in Mexico, saw earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fall 3.3% from last year to 15.73 billion pesos, despite analyst forecasts EBITDA would increase.

The firm also posted 1.66 billion pesos ($72.4 million) in quarterly net profit, a huge year-on-year drop due to a 8.1 billion peso payment to Mexico’s tax authority in May.

Analysts had expected an increase in same-store sales due to shoppers eating more at home, even if the panic buying that boosted the retailer’s results earlier in the year subsided during the April-to-June period.

Mexico, Walmart Inc.’s top foreign market by store count, detected its first cases of coronavirus in late February and subsequently ordered restaurants to close and urged residents to stay at home as much as possible.

($1= 22.9570 pesos at end-June)

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Noe Torres; Editing by Dave Graham)