LuLu Retail profits soar for 9-months 2024 – will stock price follow?

Dubai: In its first financials after the IPO and ADX listing, LuLu Retail scored net profits of $184.45 million for the first nine months of 2024, a sharp gain on the $71.63 million same time last year. New hypermarket openings in the UAE and elsewhere in the Gulf clearly have played well on the bottom-line.

The revenues for the latest period are at $5.72 billion, a slight increase on the $5.41 billion in 2023. (Here, the revenue top up in the third quarter was quite impressive, at $1.85 billion from $1.75 billion. LuLu has earmarked $16.19 million as income tax expenses for the 9-month period.)
UAE operations cleared revenues of $2 billion plus, while that from Saudi Arabia at the end of nine months 2024 was at $1.1 billion.

What LuLu Retail investors will now look for is these upbeat numbers to reflect on the stock price. LuLu closed Wednesday (November 21) at Dh2.03 against the IPO offer price of Dh2.04. “All that the stock needs is for a solid set of profit and revenue numbers,” said an analyst. “LuLu seems to have delivered the profit gains over 9-month 2024. Now, let’s see if the stock catches up.”

LuLu delivered a bumper IPO, with the most significant aspect being the heavy pull in of first-time investors. All of whom made up 82,000 plus in retail investors, one of the highest recorded for a UAE IPO. The stock offering raised $1.72 billion, with aggregate demand at $37 billion for an oversubscription by 25 times.
According to analysts, the latest results also set up LuLu for an upbeat fourth quarter and all of the holiday sales that come with it. In Q3-2024, LuLu UAE had a 7.5% revenue growth, benefiting from ‘strong market tailwinds in the region’. (Three stores were opened in the first nine months.)
Going for ‘fresh’ in Saudi Arabia
Revenue growth in Saudi Arabia was boosted by improvement in the company’s fresh food offer, as it ‘tailored its product mix to cater to the growing demand for fresh products in the Kingdom’. Five new stores opened in the nine months to Seotember, including two hypermarkets, two express stores and one mini market.

LuLu has plans for wider coverage in the Kingdom, and that will be a key element for its medium-term growth numbers, say analysts.
Higher profit margin
LuLu saw its gross EBITDA margin firm up to 9.5% from 9.2% a year ago. This was helped by the retailer’s product mix and an ‘increase in sales across higher margin categories’. This is where the investments in LuLu’s private label business is starting to pay off, which contributed 29.3% of total retail sales compared to 28.6% in Q3 2023. (The private label product-line is made up of fresh food, consumer packaged goods, lifestyle products and electrical goods.)
Capex at $98.5 million
LuLu’s capital expenditure for continuing operations totaled $98.5 million during the 9-month 2024 period, which is 1.7% of total sales. This went primarily into opening 12 new stores, including five in Saudi Arabia and three in the UAE, Lulu’s two largest markets.