Aug 21 (Reuters) - Mexican-themed fast-food chain Guzman y Gomez reported a roughly 30% jump in annual profit on Friday, helped by higher network sales in Australia, sending its shares to their highest level in nearly one year.
Network sales in the Australia segment, which includes Singapore and Japan, rose 17.9% to A$1.4 billion ($997.22 million) for the year ended June 30. The segment is now the company's primary growth engine after GYG exited the United States in May due to weak sales.
The segment
logged comparable sales growth of 5.3%, in line with the Visible Alpha consensus of 5.24%, according to Citi. However, that was lower than the 9.6% logged a year earlier.
Citi noted the health of GYG's Australia network as a positive, saying growth was coming from volume instead of price.
"This seems higher quality than other QSR (quick-service restaurant) peers which are relying more heavily on price to drive growth," Citi said.
GYG, regarded as a bellwether for fast-food chains, reported an underlying net profit after tax of A$53.4 million, up from A$41.2 million a year earlier.
It declared a final dividend of 40.6 Australian cents per share, which includes 14.4 cents as a special dividend, well ahead of the Visible Alpha consensus of 7 cents.
The company's Australia shares rose as much as 12.6% to A$27.00, their highest since October 31, 2025, while the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.2%.
GYG, however, swung to a loss after tax attributable of A$26.7 million from a profit of A$14.5 million in the previous year. It attributed this to an A$67.3 million loss from its discontinued operations in the U.S.
($1 = 1.4039 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Shruti Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Subhranshu Sahu)
