Britain's Asda warns on profit as it invests in turnaround

Investment will "materially reduce" 2025 profit

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Rebuilding Asda will take 3 to 5 years, says new chairman

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Says he is 'not overly concerned about balance sheet'

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Ends 2024 with net debt of 3.8 bln stg

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Shares in rivals Tesco and Sainsbury's fall sharply

LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - Struggling British supermarket Asda has warned that required investment in lowering prices and improving product availability and ranges will "materially reduce" profit this year, sending shares in rivals tumbling on fears of a step up in competition.

Asda, Britain's third largest food retailer after Tesco and Sainsbury's, lost a whole percentage point of market share to its bigger rivals and discounters Aldi and Lidl last year, according to industry data.

Private equity firm TDR Capital, Asda's majority owner, in November brought back Allan Leighton to be the grocer's executive chairman, more than two decades after he served as CEO and turned the chain around before selling it to Walmart .

Leighton launched major price cuts in January in an attempt to kick start a recovery - reintroducing the "Rollback" promotion that was first used in the 1990s.

Leighton told reporters on Friday that the aim was to be 5% to 10% cheaper than supermarket rivals, though regaining customers’ trust would take time.

"We will undertake a substantive and well backed programme of investment in price, availability and the shopping experience to deliver this," he said.

"This will materially reduce our profitability this year, which we expect to reverse as our market share recovers and improves over time.”

Shares in Tesco and Sainsbury's were down 8.9% and 7.8%, respectively. Analysts at Citi said Asda's price investment was a potential headwind for both, as they may have to "respond in order to defend their recent (market) share gains".

Leighton, 71, said rebuilding Asda so it could deliver a decade of growth would take three to five years.

"This is not about a quick fix, this is about a right fix for the long term," he said, adding that he has committed to stay for that time period "if I'm still alive" and was not under pressure to appoint a CEO in the short term.

Asda reported a 5.8% increase in adjusted EBITDA after rent to 1.14 billion pounds ($1.47 billion) in 2024, on flat revenue, excluding fuel, of 21.7 billion pounds. Fourth quarter like-for-like sales fell 4.2%.

Analysts say Asda has been hampered by the cost of servicing debt taken on when Mohsin and Zuber Issa and TDR bought 90% of the group from Walmart, which still holds the remaining 10%, in a 6.8 billion pound deal in 2021.

Net debt was 3.8 billion pounds at the end of December and interest costs were around 300 million pounds over the year.

However, Leighton said he was "not overly concerned" about the balance sheet, noting Asda generated 600 million pounds in free cash flow in 2024, has 800 million pounds in cash and 9 billion pounds of assets.