Asda has reported a 24% rise in annual earnings that reflect a 7.1% rise in total sales from 2023.
The UK’s thirst biggest supermarket group also said it had cut its debt.
The group said 2023 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was £1.08 billion, on total sales, excluding fuel, of £21.9 billion.
The company, owned by brothers Zuba and Moshin Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital, added that like-for-like sales rose 5.4%.
Rivals
However, data from Kantar published at the end of March indicated that Asda is consistently underperforming compared to its bigger rivals.
The data found that Asda had a 13.8% share of Britain’s grocery market, down 50 basis points on the year.
Its rivals Tesco and Sainsburys held 27.3% and 15.2% of the market share respectively.
Asda has been burdened by finance costs due to high levels of debt since the Issas and TDR Capital purchased the business from Walmart in 2020.
The £6.8 billion deal left the US supermarket giant with a 10% stake in the business.
Asda said its net debt at the end of 2023 was £3.8 billion, net of more than £1 billion of cash on the balance sheet.
It said more than 90% of this debt is secured on fixed rates of interest and it is “fully committed to further deleveraging.”
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