Walmart trims Q4 forecast after scrapping of Bharti Retail venture

Global retail giant Walmart todaytrimmed its fourth-quarter profit guidance by 10 cents a shareafter scrapping a six-year venture with Bharti Retail in India

and closing 50 stores in Brazil and China.

“Two items impact our guidance by approximately $0.10per share. The net impact (of scrapping the India venture) isexpected to be dilutive to earnings per share by approximately$0.04,” Walmart said in a statement.

For the fourth quarter, Walmart expects earnings pershare to be in the range of $1.50 to $1.60, it said.The US retail giant has sought clarifications about local

sourcing norms for foreign players after the Indian governmentallowed 51 percent foreign direct investment in multi-brandretailing in September last year.

Walmart and Bharti Enterprises said on October 9 they areparting ways in India. The companies agreed to independentlyown and operate separate business formats and discontinuetheir franchise agreement in the retail business.Walmart will buy out its Indian partner in their 50:50joint venture Bharti Walmart, which runs 20 Best Price ModernWholesale stores, for an undisclosed sum.

Bharti will acquire $100 million of CompulsoryConvertible Debentures held by Walmart in Cedar SupportServices, a company owned and controlled by the Indian firm.It will run its ’easyday’ retail stores on its own.

The two partners joined hands in 2007 and launched theirfirst Best Price Modern Wholesale store in Amritsar in 2009.Walmart today reported Q3 EPS of $ 1.14 as net salesrevenue increased 1.6 percent to $ 114.9 billion.

PTI