Retail group Ahold beats expectations thanks to buoyant U.S. sales

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Supermarket group Ahold Delhaize on Wednesday reported a forecast-beating 22% jump in fourth-quarter core earnings helped by strength in U.S. markets and cost savings.

Finance chief Natalie Knight said in an interview that lower-than-expected energy costs in Europe had also helped lift the bottom line.

Quarterly underlying operating income rose to 1.03 billion euros ($1.10 billion), beating the 890 million euro consensus in analyst forecasts compiled by the company.

Sales of 23.4 billion euros for the three-month period were roughly in line with expectations.

"I would call it a very solid beat. ..For us, the fourth quarter was really driven by a strong U.S. business where we had a strong holiday season, good online sales," Knight said.

Shares in Ahold leapt nearly 6% in early European trading.

In its full-year outlook Ahold said it expects an underlying operating margin of about 4% and underlying earnings per share "around 2022 levels".

Ahold, which operates the Albert Heijn chain in the Netherlands and Stop & Shop, Giant, Food Lion and Hannaford in the United States, said sales excluding gasoline rose 9.3% year on year in the United States and 5.7% in Europe.

The company's cost savings were 100 million euros more than expected, it said, bringing the 2022 total to 979 million euros.

With double-digit inflation in the short term, Ahold will "explore new opportunities" to lower costs across the group, it added.

"In 2023, we are going to follow that same game plan and our goal now is to exceed the billion. It is important in these times to keep prices as low as possible," Knight said.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)