Russian health and drugstore chain Pharmacy 36.6’s losses for 2011 fell 26 percent year-on-year to 288 million rubles ($9 million) to IFRS, the company said on Monday.
Analysts polled by Prime news agency expected the company to make a bigger loss of 355.6 million rubles.
Consolidated sales from ongoing operations increased by 6 percent for the year to 21.594 billion rubles. The company’s EBITDA grew by 25 percent in 2011 to 2.238 billion rubles.
The company’s gross profit increased by 14 percent to 9.674 billion rubles, while net profit before loss on early loan repayment reached 200 million rubles compared with a net loss of 391 million rubles in 2010.
“In 2011 the company refinanced all debts denominated in U.S. dollars, which allowed us to cut exposure to foreign currency risk and decrease the average interest rates on the main borrowings,” Chief Executive Officer Andrei Slivchenko said.
“The company’s key objectives for 2012 are: launching a new ‘Leko’brand of pharmacy aiming at the ‘economy’ market segment and increasing ’36.6’ pharmacies efficiency in order to attract more customers and improve pharmacies returns,” he said.