Grocer Metro's profit rises on sales, acquisition

(Reuters) - Metro Inc , Canada's third largest grocer, reported a nearly 14 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by higher sales and better cost controls.

Results were boosted by Mediterranean food retailer Marche Adonis and its distributor Phoenicia Products, in which Metro bought a 55 percent stake last October.

Sales rose 3.8 percent to C$3.70 billion in the third quarter ended June 30. Marche Adonis and Phoenicia contributed C$81.3 million in sales during the quarter.

Sales at established stores, a key measure for retailers, rose 1 percent.

Net earnings increased to C$144.4 million, or C$1.43 per share, from C$127.1 million, or C$1.23 per share, a year earlier. Excluding a one-time tax expense, earnings rose slightly more, to C$147.4 million, or C$1.46 a share.

Analysts, on average, expected earnings of C$1.37 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Maneesha Tiwari in Bangalore; editing by Supriya Kurane and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/grocer-metros-profit-rises-higher-sales-112322399--finance.html

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