B&M EUROPEAN VALUE RETAIL S.A. LONDON (Reuters) - B&M European Value Retail (>> B&M European Value Retail SA), the fast-growing British discount store chain that listed in June, said it was on track to meet market expectations for full-year revenue and profit after robust Christmas trading.
The firm, chaired by former Tesco (>> Tesco PLC) boss Terry Leahy, said on Friday sales at UK stores open over a year rose 4.5 percent in the 13 weeks to Dec. 27, its fiscal third quarter.
That compares with a first half rise of 4.8 percent.
On Wednesday discount rival Poundland reported a slowdown in sales growth.
With recession-era shopping habits entrenched, discount retailers, both in general merchandise and food, are taking sales from Britain's traditional "big four" supermarkets, including Tesco, which became the undisputed leader of the sector under Leahy.
Total sales over the period from B&M's 417 UK stores rose 20.5 percent to 493.8 million pounds.
Group sales, including German business JA Woll, increased 28.8 percent to 527.9 million pounds.
Liverpool, north west England-based B&M, which trades under the B&M Bargain and B&M Homestore brands, expects to open at least 50 net new stores in the UK in its 2014-15 year and at least 45 in 2015-16.
Analysts are on average forecasting a 2014-15 pretax profit of 121.5 million pounds, according to Reuters data.
Shares in B&M, which listed at 270 pence, closed Thursday at 302 pence, valuing the business at 3.1 billion pounds.
U.S. buyout group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and the Arora family, which raised over 1 billion pounds from floating the business, still hold stakes of 29 percent and 26 percent respectively.
(Reporting by James Davey, editing by Paul Sandle)
