(AOF) – Three weeks after its warning, the American distribution giant, Walmart now anticipates a decline in its annual profits lower than announced then. Over the 2023 financial year, adjusted operating income is expected to fall by 9% to 11% against a previous forecast of -11% to -13%. Consolidated annual sales are expected to increase by 4.5%. Walmart performed less badly than expected in the second quarter.
In the second quarter, net income jumped 20.4% to $5.15 billion, or $1.88 per share. Adjusted for exceptional items, earnings per share, however, came out at $1.77, or 15 cents better than the FactSet consensus. Operating profit fell 6% to $6.9 billion.
The distributor also reported an 8.4% increase in turnover to 152.9 billion dollars, where the market was expecting 150.9 billion dollars. It rose by 9.1%, excluding currency effects.
On a like-for-like basis and excluding gasoline, sales of its largest division, Walmart US, rose 7.1% to $105.1 billion.
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Urban transformation to enhance real estate heritage
Several initiatives are intended to densify the land around hypermarkets and/or to play on the mix of uses (commerce, office, housing and even urban logistics). Nhood, the company launched by the Mulliez family, has the mission of transforming into mixed neighborhoods sites belonging to the real estate companies of Auchan, Ceetrus and Nodi, and the real estate assets of other companies in the group. It will accelerate in this business of urban regeneration. The Mulliez family had planned to invest 1.8 billion euros between 2022 and 2026 in its real estate projects. This objective should soon be revised upwards. Carrefour, for its part, joined forces with the promoter Altarea in early 2021 to transform commercial areas into mixed neighborhoods.