MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico’s FESMA, which controls one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers and a string of convenience store chains, posted a 22% jump in its first-quarter revenue Friday to 180 billion pesos, driven by strong sales in its key businesses.
On the back of the company’s one-off sale of its stake in Dutch beer giant Heineken in February, the firm’s net profit surged over eight times in the period to 50.3 billion pesos ($2.8 billion) compared to the same period last year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), or core earnings, for the quarter rose 12.51% to 22.16 billion pesos, boosted by an 18.3% growth in same-store-sales in FEMSA’s Oxxo convenience stores across Latin America.
Sales in the region were seen “widely outpacing the industry,” Group CEO Daniel Rodriguez said in a statement.
The company’s fintech arm, Spin by Oxxo, saw growth of 1.1 million new users in the quarter, taking its total user base to 6.4 million, while total monthly transactions were up 22%.
The company’s subsidiary, Coca-Cola FEMSA, meanwhile reported a 35% bump in quarterly net income earlier this week following strong growth in Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala and Uruguay.
FEMSA’s acquisition of Swiss kiosk operator Valora in the summer also provided a boost to its first quarter results, generating around 10.1 billion pesos in new revenue – or around 10% of the company’s total – in the January to March period.
($1 = 18.0201 pesos by end-March)
(Reporting by Valentine Hilaire and Noe Torres; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Elaine Hardcastle)
