BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe's biggest consumer electronics retailer Ceconomy (DE:CECG) reported a slight decline in sales for its fiscal second quarter on Thursday after it decided not to repeat a tax refund campaign, while cost cuts helped boost operating profit.
On Tuesday, Ceconomy's MediaMarktSaturn announced it had signed a deal with French electronics retailer Fnac Darty (PA:FNAC) to create a European retail alliance on purchasing, seen as a move to help fight competition from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Ceconomy, which already owns a 24 percent stake in the French company, said it did not expect any material financial impact from the cooperation for 2018.
The operator of Media Markt and Saturn stores, which split from German retail conglomerate Metro (DE:B4B) last July, said second-quarter sales were dented by a decision not to repeat a value added tax refund scheme at Saturn stores, but helped by an early Easter.
Sales dipped 0.2 percent to 5.25 billion euros (4.58 billion pounds), missing average analyst forecasts for 5.28 billion. Sales rose 0.8 percent when adjusted for currency effects.
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) came in at 18 million euros, after a loss of 19 million in the same period last year, helped by the end of the VAT refunds, cost cuts and higher demand for services.
Ceconomy kept its forecast for at least medium single-digit percentage growth in annual operating profit and a slight increase on sales of 22.16 billion euros last year.
($1 = 0.8458 euros)