Inditex Nine-Month Net Profit Rises on Sales Growth

Spain's Inditex SA (ITX.MC) said Wednesday that its nine-month net profit rose 6.2%, driven by sales growth nearing 10%.

Net profit for February to October totaled 2.34 billion euros ($2.75 billion) compared with EUR2.21 billion in the equivalent period a year earlier, while sales increased 9.5% to EUR17.96 billion. Both figures are roughly in line with analysts' expectations, as provided by FactSet.

Gross margin was 57.4%, slightly lower on year, the company said.

The fashion retailer, which owns the Zara chain of stores, recorded 212 net store openings in 52 markets in the nine-month period. This means that the company opened 99 stores in the third quarter--including its first ones in Belarus--missing Deutsche Bank analysts' expectations of 131 net openings.

Inditex also said that it store and online sales in local currencies increased 13% from Nov. 1 to Dec. 11, the first part of its fourth quarter.

Write to Alberto Delclaux at alberto.delclaux@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 13, 2017 01:39 ET (06:39 GMT)