Victory Supermarket Chain Ltd. said its normalized net income for the fourth quarter amounted to 29 agorot per share, a decrease of 20.7% from 36 agorot per share in the prior-year period.

Normalized net income, which excludes unusual gains or losses on a pre- and after-tax basis, was 4.1 million shekels, a decline of 10.7% from 4.6 million shekels in the prior-year period.

The normalized profit margin declined to 1.6% from 2.1% in the year-earlier period.

Total revenue increased 15.8% on an annual basis to 260.4 million shekels from 224.8 million shekels, and total operating expenses rose 16.5% on an annual basis to 252.7 million shekels from 217.0 million shekels.

Reported net income fell 31.6% year over year to 3.7 million shekels, or 26 agorot per share, from 5.4 million shekels, or 43 agorot per share.

For the year, the company's normalized net income totaled 1.03 shekels per share, compared with the S&P Capital IQ consensus normalized EPS estimate of 1.29 shekels.

EPS declined 26.6% from 1.41 shekels in the prior year.

Normalized net income was 14.8 million shekels, a fall of 17.6% from 17.9 million shekels in the prior year.

Full-year total revenue grew 9.1% year over year to 979.4 million shekels from 897.4 million shekels, and total operating expenses increased 9.8% year over year to 954.0 million shekels from 869.0 million shekels.

The company said reported net income decreased 24.3% on an annual basis to 16.3 million shekels, or 1.14 shekels per share, in the full year, from 21.6 million shekels, or 1.69 shekels per share.

As of March 29, US$1 was equivalent to 3.82 shekels.