Royal Ahold Delhaize NV on Wednesday raised its full-year guidance after reporting a 12% rise in second-quarter net profit–beating consensus forecasts–as it benefited from increased market share and strong customer loyalty.
The Dutch grocer added that it no longer plans an initial public offering of Bol.com given the current equity market conditions, but will revisit the plan when conditions improve.
Royal Ahold made a net profit for the quarter of 603 million euros ($615.9 million), compared with EUR540 million for the year-earlier period and a consensus of EUR534 million, taken from the company’s website and based on 13 analysts’ forecasts.
Net sales rose to EUR21.45 billion from EUR18.65 billion the prior year, a rise of 6.4% on a constant-exchange basis. This compares with a consensus of EUR21.04 billion, according to a company-compiled consensus of 16 analysts’ estimates.
Like-for-like U.S. net sales rose 7.7%, while European sales climbed 4.2%, the company said.
Quarterly underlying earnings per share–which strips out exceptional and other one-off items–rose to 59 European cents from 53 cents, up 1.8% on a constant-exchange basis, it said.
For the year ahead, the company expects mid-single-digit underlying earnings-per-share growth, up from previous guidance of matching 2021’s EUR2.19.
The board has declared an interim dividend of 46 cents a share, up from 43 cents.