Supermarket giant Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV, which operates the Food Lion and Stop & Shop chains in the U.S., on Feb. 28 reported a sharp increase in fourth-quarter net income and announced it planned to return €2 billion to shareholders in 2018.
The company, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, said net income in the three months ended Dec. 31, 2017, jumped to €744 million from €178 million in the year-ago period. The 2016 figure included a one-off finance cost of €243 million related to the repurchase of its ¥33 billion notes.
Diluted EPS for the quarter climbed to 59 cents, up from 14 cents a year prior and beating the S&P Capital IQ consensus estimate of 31 cents.
Net sales increased to €15.76 billion from €16.36 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016.
For the full year, Ahold proposed a dividend of 63 cents per share, a year over year increase of 10.5%. The company also said it would return €2 billion to investors through a share buyback program this year.
As of Feb. 27, US$1 was equivalent to ¥107.45.
