LONDON: Kingfisher, Europe's largest home improvement retailer, missed forecasts with a 6.6 percent fall in third-quarter profit, hurt by a soft market in France and adverse foreign exchange movements.
The company, which trades as B&Q and Screwfix in Britain and Castorama and Brico Depot in France, said on Tuesday it made a retail profit of 223 million pounds ($338 million) in the 13 weeks to Oct. 31.
That compared with analysts' average forecast of 234 million pounds, according to a company-compiled consensus.
The results were hit by 17 million pounds of adverse foreign exchange movements on the translation of non-sterling profits and around 5 million pounds of additional store development costs in France and Poland compared to last year.
"Trading conditions have followed a similar trend to the first half of the year, reflecting the more encouraging macroeconomic backdrop in the UK offset by a softer market in France," Chief Executive Laury said.
In France, home to the group's biggest division, sales at stores open more than a year rose 0.1 percent, compared to analysts' average forecast of a rise of 0.5 percent.
That reflected a flat overall home improvement market and a slow house building market.
In Britain, like-for-like sales increased 4.6 percent, ahead of analysts' consensus forecast for an increase of 3.7 percent.
Total group sales fell 2.5 percent to 2.65 billion pounds.
In March, Laury outlined plans to reshape Kingfisher, including closing 60 B&Q stores, cutting the number of product lines, developing unified garden and bathroom businesses and starting a revitalisation programme for big stores across Europe.
She said on Tuesday that strategy was making good progress.
Shares in Kingfisher, the world's third biggest do-it-yourself (DIY) player behind US companies Lowe's and Home Depot, have risen 13 percent over the last year.
The stock closed Monday at 345.1 pence, valuing the business at 7.95 billion pounds.
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