Carrefour falls in Paris, disappointing 2025 results. Plan to 2030 seen as 'very ambitious'

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) -Carrefour hit by selling at the Paris Stock Exchange after disappointing 2025 results and the presentation of its new business plan. The stock of the French hypermarket giant significantly reduced its gain since the beginning of the year, which until Tuesday stood at +8.2%, while it is now hovering around 3%.

In detail, the group ended 2025 with a net profit more than halved to EUR 319 million, penalised by the sale of Carrefour Italia. However, total sales, including taxes and fuel, increased slightly to EUR 91.5 billion (+1.2%). The company also adjusted last year's published sales (EUR 94.6 billion) to take into account theexit of its Italian subsidiary, bringing 2024 sales to EUR 90.4 billion. The group has indicated its intention to focus on the domestic market, but like-for-like sales in France, excluding fuel and calendar effects, grew 0.4% in the fourth quarter, below the 0.7% expected by analysts. Recurring operating profit was also below estimates.

There is also concern about the new business plan for the period 2026-2030 released in the morning, which aims for adjusted earnings per share growth in the high single digits each year and a recurring operating margin of 3.2% in 2028 and 3.5% in 2030. "Very ambitious" targets for the experts, who consider the French market structurally difficult. The new strategy, in terms of cost savings, aims to cut EUR 1 billion per year until 2030, generating a cumulative net cash flow of EUR 5 billion over the period 2026-2028. The group wants to focus on the development of its three core markets, France, Spain and Brazil, andaccelerate the development of projects related to artificial intelligence with investments of 100 million per year.

As for the dividend, the group proposed for the 2025 financial year a coupon of €0.97 per share, up 5.4% from €0.92 in 2024, for a total amount of €685 million, a figure in line with the objective of increasing the dividend by at least 5% each year. In addition, Carrefour will propose an extraordinary dividend of EUR 150m (EUR 0.21 per share) to its shareholders. Going forward, the group stated that dividend payments will be 50-60% of adjusted earnings per share over the course of the plan.