SAO PAULO, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Brazilian food retailer GPA reported on Monday a wider net loss of 1.3 billion reais ($257.8 million), compared with the year-ago period, hit mainly by non-cash effects from the spin-off of Almacenes Exito .
The company lost about 296 million reais last year in July-to-September.
GPA, which is controlled by France's Casino , posted net revenue growth of 9.7% to reach 4.74 billion reais in the period, slightly missing a LSEG analyst estimate of 4.81 billion reais.
Total sales grew 9.9% to total 5.09 billion reais, boosted by a jump in sales from placing smaller stores closer to customers, the company said.
The results "demonstrate the continued positive evolution of our business," CEO Marcelo Pimentel said in a statement.
In August, the food retailer spun-off its Colombian subsidiary Exito, distributing to its shareholders about 83% of its stake in the unit, which GPA said had substantially impacted its bottom line. But the company stressed the effects were non-cash.
Excluding the non-cash effects of the spin-off, GPA said it would have lost just 22 million reais in the quarter.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) spiked 1.14 billion reais, in large part due to 800 million reais in expected losses from another subsidiary that did not materialize. Excluding that, EBITDA reached 333 million reais.
Earlier this month, Grupo Calleja, a leading grocery retailer in El Salvador, reached an agreement with Casino and GPA to launch a tender offer to acquire Almacenes Exito.
($1 = 5.0428 reais) (Reporting by Peter Frontini; Editing by David Alire Garcia)
