JSAIY J Sainsbury Plc (QX)

By Adriano Marchese

J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN) said Thursday that pretax profit fell 92% in the first half of fiscal 2020 as it booked higher one-off costs.

In the 28 weeks to Sept. 21, the U.K. grocer made a pretax profit of 9 million pounds ($11.6 million), compared with GBP107 million in the first half of fiscal 2019.

The company said that underlying profit--the company's preferred metric which excludes exceptional costs--was GBP238 million, a fall of GBP41 million from the prior year's period.

Revenue fell 0.2% to GBP15.1 billion in the period, while underlying group sales, which include VAT, were GBP16.86 billion compared with GBP16.88 billion. On a like-for-like basis, sales were down 1%, a measure which excludes fuel.

The board has declared an interim dividend of 3.3 pence a share, up from last year's 3.1 pence.

The company said that retail markets remain highly competitive, with uncertain consumer outlook, but continues to expect profits in the second half to benefit from normalization of costs.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 07, 2019 02:43 ET (07:43 GMT)

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