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Investing.com -- Carrefour (EPA:CARR) shares fell sharply on Thursday after the French retailer issued a cautious outlook on consumer demand and projected only "slight" growth in free cash flow (FCF) and earnings before interest and tax (EBITDA) for 2025.
The company also expects modest growth in recurring operating income.
By 11:28 GMT, Carrefour shares were down 9%.
Carrefour also reported fourth-quarter results that showed another decline in comparable sales in France, its largest market. The company’s CFO Matthieu Malige said he does not expect a significant improvement in demand in the near term.
For 2024, Carrefour reported a net profit of 723 million euros ($753.6 million), a sharp drop from 1.66 billion euros in 2023 and below market expectations of 1.17 billion euros, according to Visible Alpha data.
Meanwhile, net sales increased by 5.1% to 85.45 billion euros, while EBITDA rose 1.7% to 4.64 billion euros.
Looking ahead, the company plans to continue investing in competitive pricing throughout 2025 and has introduced a new 1.2 billion-euro cost savings plan to support these efforts.
Carrefour also announced it has begun a review of its business portfolio, which includes a decision to acquire full ownership of Carrefour Brazil.
“We think management should focus on the core basics of being a food retailer and could take radical steps on countries and space,” Bernstein analysts led by William Woods said in a note. “However, we think this will not be easy to execute.”
The analysts believe Carrefour should “shrink the business, reduce space, focus on pricing and Drive in France, forget group M&A, rethink the franchise model, keep growing Brazil, [and] introduce an improved capital allocation framework, compensation framework and governance structure.”