El Corte Inglés advances in its real estate plan. The department store group has earned 660 million euros from the sale of assets over the last four years. In the last financial year alone, the group sold 313 million euros in assets after disposing of buildings in Barcelona, Seville and Córdoba, which caused the company’s liabilities to be reduced to 2,000 million euros, according to a presentation released to investors in the framework of a new bond issue that Cinco Días has advanced.
In addition to the sale of assets, The company is also immersed in a strategy to renovate its commercial park for which it has allocated up to 428 million euros. Specifically, the department store company is updating 25 of its points of sale, located in Bilbao, A Coruña, Málaga or Madrid, as well as some of its supermarkets. Retail is the bulk of the company’s business, with revenues of 12,000 million euros in 2023, 4% above 2022.
El Corte Inglés, which is preparing to go public before 2028, has also increased the volume of investment in technology, products and new services. At the beginning of 2023, the group achieved support from the European Investment Bank to promote its energy efficiency and innovation plans.
El Corte Inglés has allocated up to 428 million euros for the renovation of its retail park
El Corte Inglés increased its turnover by 5.4% in the last year, up to 16,333 million eurosbut reduced its net profit of 480 million euros due to the lack of extraordinary items.
The company, which achieved a record net result of 870 million euros in the previous year (when extraordinary items from the sale of part of its business to Mutua Madrileña were computed), highlighted that recurring net profit soared by 73. 7%, up to 359 million euros. This is the highest recurring net result since 2009. The gross operating profit (ebitda) of El Corte Inglés stood at 1,081 million euros13.6% more than in the previous fiscal year.
The company is currently 8% owned by Grupo Mutua, after signing a refinancing of its liabilities in March 2022 with more than twenty banking entities. The company is chaired by Malta Álvarez, who has had Gastón Bottazzini, former CEO of Falabella, as an advisor since this February.
