By Brendan O’Boyle (Reuters) -Walmart’s Mexico and Central America unit reported on Tuesday a 9% drop in third-quarter net profit, mainly due to higher financial costs and a one-off accounting adjustment, despite growth in sales and operational efficiencies. Net profit for Mexico’s largest retailer was 11.75 billion pesos ($641.41 million) in the three months through […]
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Walmart’s Mexico unit posts 9% drop in Q3 profit, below forecasts
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By Brendan O’Boyle
(Reuters) -Walmart’s Mexico and Central America unit reported on Tuesday a 9% drop in third-quarter net profit, mainly due to higher financial costs and a one-off accounting adjustment, despite growth in sales and operational efficiencies.
Net profit for Mexico’s largest retailer was 11.75 billion pesos ($641.41 million) in the three months through September, below the 13.7 billion-peso forecast of analysts polled by LSEG.
Revenues for Walmex, as the company is known, rose 5% year-on-year to 241.52 billion pesos – slightly below analysts’ estimate of 244.8 billion pesos.
However, financial expenses rose by 65.7% compared to the same period in 2024, reaching 2.7 billion pesos, while a non-recurrent item impacted the consolidated net income margin.
Walmex, which operates Walmart and Sam’s Club stores as well as low-cost supermarket chain Bodega Aurrera, is one of Mexico’s largest private employers.
The quarterly results are Walmex’s first under new Chief Executive Cristian Barrientos, who was named acting CEO on August 1 and confirmed as CEO and chair on October 7, replacing Ignacio Caride, who stepped down after fewer than two years in the role.
In a presentation on Tuesday, Barrientos celebrated the company’s “solid business fundamentals” while noting a volatile economic backdrop.
“Given the ongoing uncertainty around tariffs, the coming USMCA (U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement) renegotiation, and volatile consumption, we are encouraged by our team’s ability to execute the priorities we have defined,” Barrientos said, highlighting the company’s “three non-negotiable pillars” of price leadership, product availability and the acceleration of e-commerce.
The company reported a 3.9% rise in same-store sales in Mexico and 0.6% growth in Central America. It added 23 stores in Mexico and three in Central America.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, CFO Paulo Garcia said Walmex was well positioned to navigate the economic environment and that the company is expecting performance in line with the two previous quarters, with “similar top-line growth levels and accelerated market share gains” as well as profit improvement.
($1 = 18.3147 Mexican pesos at end-September)
(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Sarah Morland and Lincoln Feast.)