H&M looks brighter – Västerbottens-kuriren (the Courier)

Economy. 2016 did not live up to the Hennes & Mauritz hopes. But it brightened towards the end of the year. Klädjätten increases the profit in the fourth quarter.

Facts

Quarter 4 covers the period september-november in the company’s broken fiscal year. Sums in millions of Swedish kronor unless otherwise indicated.

Source: H&M

H&M’s profit before tax was sek 7.4 billion for the period from september to november, the fourth quarter of the company’s broken fiscal year. The corresponding period of the 2015 H&M to a gain of just over 7.1 billion kronor.

the Result was better than expected. Analysts had on average expected a profit of 7 billion kronor, according to Reuters compilation.

Turnover amounted to 52,7 billion, excluding vat, compared to 48.7 billion a year earlier.

the Board of directors proposes an unchanged dividend to the shareholders at 9:sek 75 per share for the fiscal year.

Pulled down the profit

For the full year, sales increased by seven per cent in local currencies. It was lower than what the group had planned beforehand, which led to increased price reductions. Along with a strong dollar dragged down profits.

"We saw, however, an improved earnings performance in the fourth quarter," writes the H&M’s ceo Karl-Johan Persson in a comment.

In January, sales increased by eleven percent, measured in local currencies and compared with the same month in the previous year.

in Total, H&M 427 new stores and eleven new online markets in 2016. This means that the H&M were online in 35 countries at the end of the year and that the number of stores amounted to 4 351.

For the recently started fiscal year counts the H&M with the opening 430 new stores net. New planned butiksmarknader is Kazakhstan, Colombia, Iceland, Vietnam and Georgia.

Online, the company plans to be into in six new markets: Turkey, Taiwan, Hong kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.

New brands

"Of the new stores opened in 2017, most will be H&M stores and approximately 70 to 80 stores will consist of our other brands," writes Karl-Johan Persson.

H&M plans to launch one or two new brands in 2017. The group also plans to develop the brand H&M Home with the stand-alone stores.

Klädjätten presents in the financial statements of a new growth target, which says sales to grow by 10-15 percent per year in local currencies, in-store and online all in all, with continued high profitability. In the past, the target has been formulated as to the number of stores will increase by 10-15%.