Zara owner Inditex today posted a smaller than expected 2.4% drop in first-half net profit as strong cost controls helped compensate for negative currency effects.
The world's largest clothing retailer posted net profit for the period from February 1 to July 31 of €928m.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation slipped 0.4% to €1.6 billion while sales at Inditex's more than 6,400 stores rose 5.6% to €8.1 billion.
Sales from August 1 to September 12 in local currencies rose 10% after increasing 11% in the first half to €8.1 billion.
Inditex said negative currencies had hit sales by 4 percentage points.
A Reuters poll had forecast net profit of €908m, EBITDA of €1.6 billion and sales of €8.1 billion.
Like-for-like sales, which strip out the increase to sales from new stores, grew 4.5% in the first half, which runs from February 1 to July 31.
Inditex has outperformed many rival retailers in the global crisis through its aggressive expansion to some 87 markets including fast-growing cities in China.
But the fall of currencies against the euro in lucrative markets such as Russia, where some analysts estimate it makes almost 6% of its sales and Japan, where it makes about 4% of its sales, have hit results this year.
