MEXICO CITY, April 28 (Reuters) - Walmart's Mexico and Central America unit on Tuesday reported a slight rise in first-quarter net profit, beating analyst forecasts, as strong growth in Mexico and online sales helped offset rising costs and weaker results in Central America.
The retailer, known as Walmex, posted a net profit of 12.50 billion pesos ($697.34 million) for the January-March period, up 1.5% and above the 12.06 billion pesos expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
Revenues rose 1.7% to 245.02
billion pesos, but missed the LSEG estimate of 269.96 billion pesos.
Core earnings, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), slipped 0.4% to 24.98 billion pesos, just below the 25.25 billion pesos forecast.
The company said higher sales in Mexico and solid e-commerce growth were offset by rising expenses and weaker profitability in Central America.
Net e-commerce sales in Mexico jumped 14.4%, helped by 20% growth in on-demand sales, although marketplace gross merchandise value (GMV) fell 14.4%.
Revenue in the country rose to 204.36 billion pesos, while operating income edged up 0.3% to 15.90 billion pesos. In Central America, revenue totaled 40.66 billion pesos and operating income dropped 15.4% in peso terms, or 2.7% excluding currency effects.
In March, the retailer said it planned to invest about 43 billion pesos in 2026, roughly 10% more than the previous year, as it pushes ahead with expansion and logistics projects.
It also said at the time it would propose a share buyback program of up to 10 billion pesos.
On Tuesday, Walmex said shareholders had approved an ordinary cash dividend of 1.16 pesos per share and authorized the buyback plan through the next annual shareholders meeting.
Chief Executive Cristian Barrientos said the company was seeing early signs of improvement in key operating drivers, but said the coming months would require "intensity and discipline" to turn those efforts into tangible results.
($1 = 17.9252 Mexican pesos at end-March)
(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Writing by Jorge Ollero; Editing by Natalia Siniawski and Sarah Morland)
