Retail chain Shoppers Stop Ltd today posted 44% decline in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 at Rs 9.33 crore compared to the year-ago period, dragged down by losses in hypermarkets and expenditure on opening of other new outlets.
The K Raheja Group promoted firm's net profit during the three months ended December 31, 2010 was Rs 16.54 crore.
The company's consolidated net sales for the quarter under review increased 14.31% to Rs 810.70 crore as against Rs 709.20 crore in the third quarter of 2010-2011 fiscal.
Commenting on the performance, Shoppers Stop Ltd (SSL) Managing Director Govind Shrikhande told PTI: "The dip in net profit can be attributed to factors like Hypercity, which is still registering losses, and expenditure on new stores opened during the quarter."
During the quarter under review, SSL opened six new Shoppers Stop stores, two new Homestores and two new Hypercity.
While Shoppers Stop is a chain of department stores, Hypercity is a hypermarket and Homestores are into retailing of household items like furnitures.
"The new stores addition during the quarter was highest ever done by the company," Shrikhande said.
When asked about the outlook he said: "We expect the quarter four of this fiscal and the first half of the next next fiscal to be a little slow, but fast growth should come back in the second half of next financial year."
The company's scrips closed at Rs 292.65 per share, up 0.34% from the previous close on the BSE.