* 2011 net profit up 12.5 percent at 1.9 bln euros
* Announces dividend hike of 12.5 pct to 1.80 euros
* Healthy sales growth despite snowy February (Adds results, analyst comment)
By Sonya Dowsett
MADRID, March 20 (Reuters) – Spanish group Inditex, the world’s leading clothes retailer, posted perky February sales figures and announced a 12.5 percent rise in its dividend after outpacing rivals during the downturn in austerity-wracked Europe.
The owner of fast fashion chain Zara also met expectations with a 12 percent rise in full-year net profit to 1.9 billion euros ($2.5 billion), with one analyst saying on Wednesday results in the fourth quarter were better than forecast.
“Like-for-like sales and gross margin seem healthier than expected in the final quarter. On every level of the high quality indicators, it is a beat,” Societe Generale analyst Anne Critchlow said.
Inditex, started by Spain’s richest man Amancio Ortega, runs eight brands, ranging from Zara to upmarket Massimo Dutti and accessories label Uterque.
The retailer has fared better than rivals by aggressively expanding into faster-growing markets, such as Asia, and now has more than 5,500 stores across about 80 countries.
Inditex reported store sales in local currencies up 11 percent from Feb. 1 to March 14. That implied same-store sales up 3 percent, said Critchlow — a good result for a period when there was snow through most of western Europe.
Shares in Inditex, which is to lift its dividend to a total 1.80 euros, reached a record high 72.15 euros on Monday, as investors speculated on the cash-rich Spanish group’s dividend.
Inditex’s production model is seen as having shielded it from some of the worst effects of the crisis by allowing it to adapt quickly to shifting consumer behaviour and changes in labour and material costs.
As well as making clothes in Asia, where labour costs are rising from previously low levels, Inditex retains manufacturing operations in Spain — in its home region Galicia — as well as in neighbouring Portugal and Morocco. ($1 = 0.7564 euro) (Reporting by Sarah Morris; Editing by Dan Lalor)
.
