Sonae doubles profits to €268M

The Portuguese real estate, shopping mall and supermarket giant Sonae has doubled its profits on 2019 posting €268 million for 2021.

Overall, its business turnover exceeded €7Bn by the end of 2021, registering an increase of 5% on 2020.
Online sales skyrocketed 33% to €640 million, but Sonae CEO, Cláudia Azevedo has warned that 2022 could be more challenging.
The group’s net results for 2021 stood at €268 million, almost quadruple the results seen in 2020 which had been €71 million and registered a growth of a little over 100% on the €131 million it had posted for 2019. “This is the highest amount for the last eight years”, says the group.
Consolidated business turnover exceeded €7Bn at the end of 2021, representing a 5% increase like-for-like, mainly sustained by MC (the Continent supermarket and Wells pharmacies arm) and by Worten (domestic appliances and electrical goods).
Aggregated online sales hit €640 million representing an increase of 33% in like-for-like terms and three times that of 2019.
In terms of profitability, EBITDA exceeded the €600 million seen in 2019 to €738 million for 2021 while the net portfolio or asset value (NAV) was up 4.5% to €4Bn.
The group also saw a reduction in net debt by €54 million in like-for-like terms to €563 million, closing the year with around €1.4Bn of available liquidity (between cash-flow and credit lines). Its +4 year debt maturity is seen as solid reflected by its low financing costs of just 1%.
On the other hand, investment rose to €474 million, with an operational Capex up 5.8% to €279 million and acquisition investment at €195million.
The purchase of the British heath eating food producer Gosh! and various stake-holdings in technology companies, its increased shareholding in Sonae Sierra by 10% also contributed. The MC also completed the sale of its 50% stake in Maxmat to the BME Group for €68 million.
Worten also announced its restructuring plan in Spain and Universo signed a partnership with Banco CTT for the next five years.