New financial targets for ICA Gruppen AB

ICA Gruppen’s Board of Directors has adopted new financial targets for the Group. The new targets take into account the acquisition of Apotek Hjärtat, the ongoing divestment of ICA Norway and the planned divestment of the Norwegian property portfolio.

The Group’s financial targets are intended to ensure that ICA Gruppen provides shareholder value over time and provide clear operational objectives. The work of updating the targets included comparisons with relevant European companies.

The Board of ICA Gruppen has adopted the following long-term financial targets for the Group:

• To grow faster than the market (unchanged)
• Operating margin 4.5% (previously 4%)
• Return on capital employed 10% (previously 9%)
• Net debt/EBITDA ˂2.0 (unchanged)
• Dividend at least 50% of profit for the year (previously 50%)

“Since we have made major changes in our operations during the year, we needed to update our targets. At the same time, the company’s direction remains unchanged. We continue to focus on growth with good profitability. To succeed, we need a strong cash flow and a healthy capital structure,” says Per Strömberg, CEO of ICA Gruppen.

For further information, please contact

ICA Gruppen’s press service, telephone: +46 10 422 52 52

ICA Gruppen AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at Wednesday December the 3rd 2014 at 08.00 CET.

ICA Gruppen AB (publ) is one of the Nordic region’s leading retail companies, with around 2,300 of its own and retailer-owned stores in Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Group includes the retail companies ICA Sweden, ICA Norway and Rimi Baltic, ICA Real Estate, which owns and manages properties and ICA Bank, which offers financial services to Swedish customers. The Group also includes the wholly owned portfolio company inkClub and partly owned portfolio companies Cervera and Hemtex. For more information see icagruppen.se

Tags: