Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. on March 2 offered an update on its digital transformation through its new alliance with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., while reporting steady financial results for full-year 2017.
The Chinese hypermarket operator, which includes chains under the Auchan and RT-Mart banners, also said it will discontinue the publication of quarterly results starting from the first quarter of 2018. It attributed the decision to a reduction in legal costs and administrative expenses.
For the full year ended Dec. 31, 2017, Sun Art recorded attributable profit of 2.79 billion Chinese yuan, up 8.6% year over year from 2.57 billion yuan. The S&P Capital IQ consensus estimate for GAAP net income was 2.85 billion yuan.
EPS came in at 29 fen, compared to 27 fen in the year-ago period and the S&P Capital IQ GAAP EPS consensus estimate of 30 fen.
Revenue for full-year 2017 was 102.32 billion yuan, up 1.9% from 100.44 billion in the previous year.
The company's board also proposed a final dividend for 2017 of 13 fen per share.
Meanwhile, Sun Art provided details of business changes resulting from its cooperation with Alibaba, which in late 2017 agreed to purchase a stake in the retailer.
Leveraging Alibaba's data-driven technology, Sun Art has linked all RT-Mart stores to a standalone RT-Mart Fresh app, which houses about 6,000 to 7,500 stock-keeping units including fresh products, fast-moving consumer goods and general goods. Users can order goods via the app and have them delivered to their homes from the nearest brick-and-mortar store location within one hour.
Digital enhancements for the group's other stores will be rolled out from March, with completion expected by 2018-end.
Sun Art noted that its priorities are to reinvent the hypermarket complexes, to explore and deploy multiformat store operations, and to become a model of the "new retail" concept that integrates the online and offline shopping experience.
As of March 2, US$1 was equivalent to 6.36 Chinese yuan.
