UPDATE 1-Mexico's Femsa posts wider profit in this year's third quarter

Reuters
·1 min read

(Adds details from report, quote)

MONTERREY, Mexico, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Mexican conglomerate Femsa reported a third-quarter net profit of 14.1 billion pesos ($683.8 million) on Thursday, up from a profit of 3.2 billion during the same quarter last year.

Total revenue for the Monterrey-based bottler and retailer, which also operates the vast Oxxo convenience store chain, as well as pharmacies and gas stations, rose 12.6% to 142.4 billion pesos, up from 126.5 billion during the same period last year.

Femsa said the year-over-year increase in profit was driven, in part, by the depreciation of the peso relative to the dollar, as well as better results from its stake in Heineken.

Revenues for the company's gas stations rose 20.5% from the same period last year, driven by growth in volume and an increase in the average price per liter, Femsa said.

Femsa's pharmacy unit revenue grew by 8.2%, while revenue for its convenience stores increased by 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

"Our company is in a much better position today than last year, and I would dare to say, better than ever," Chief Executive Officer Eduardo Padilla said in the earnings report.

($1 = 20.6420 pesos at end-September) (Reporting by Noe Torres; Writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Stephen Coates)