(Reuters) – Australia’s Wesfarmers on Thursday posted a better-than-expected half-year profit, boosted by strong performance at its budget department store operator Kmart and hardware business Bunnings.
Sales and earnings of Bunnings division benefited from strong consumer and commercial demand and Kmart logged its record first-half earnings on strong growth in apparel sales.
Wesfarmers’ net profit after tax was A$1.43 billion ($927.93 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31, compared with A$1.38 billion a year earlier. That beat analysts’ expectations of A$1.34 billion, according to LSEG data.
The Perth-headquartered firm declared an interim dividend of 91 Australian cents per share, up from 88 Australian cents apiece declared last year.
($1 = 1.5411 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
Comments