H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB Nine-month report

1 December 2012 – 31 August 2013

NINE-MONTHS

• The H&M Group’s sales including VAT increased in local currencies by 8 percent in the first nine months of the financial year. Sales in comparable units decreased by 2 percent. Converted into SEK, sales excluding VAT amounted to SEK 92,067 m (88,297), an increase of 4 percent.
• Profit after financial items amounted to SEK 15,189 m (15,649). The Group’s profit after tax amounted to SEK 11,544 m (11,580), corresponding to SEK 6.97 (7.00) per share.

THIRD QUARTER

• The H&M Group’s sales including VAT increased in local currencies by 12 percent in the third quarter. Converted into SEK, sales excluding VAT amounted to SEK 32,040 m (28,806). Sales in comparable units increased by 2 percent.
• Gross profit amounted to SEK 18,828 m (16,771), corresponding to a gross margin of 58.8 percent (58.2).
• Profit after financial items amounted to SEK 5,830 m (4,895). The Group’s profit after tax amounted to SEK 4,431 m (3,622), corresponding to SEK 2.68 (2.19) per share, an increase of 22 percent.
• H&M’s online store in the US, launched in August, has got off to a good start.
• H&M’s first stores in Lithuania and Serbia were very well received on opening in August.

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• Sales increased by 8 percent in local currencies in the period 1 September – 24 September 2013 compared to the same period last year. The full month of September will have a negative calendar effect of approximately 2 percentage points for the H&M Group.                                                  

Comments by CEO Karl-Johan Persson

“The third quarter has been very good as regards both sales and profits. Profits after financial items increased by nearly SEK 1 billion. Our well received summer collections have resulted in strong sales development in the quarter, particularly in Asia but also in a number of European markets. We have also seen the very successful launch of our online store in the US in August and can see that our offering stands up well in the world’s largest online market.

Our expansion is strong. It is not long since we opened our 2,000th store in 2010, and this September – only three years later – we opened our store number 3,000 in Chengdu, one of China’s major cities. China is the country where our expansion is strongest, but we are also expanding in other exciting regions. We have opened 215 new stores so far this year and have had successful openings in four new H&M countries: Chile, Lithuania, Serbia and Estonia. In October this year we will open in another country in Southeast Asia – in Indonesia via franchise – and in the first half of 2014 we will open our first store in Melbourne, Australia. In 2015 we plan to open in South Africa.

We are also continuing to work on our other brands as well as on our global roll-out of online shopping with the aim of launching our online store in more markets during 2014. Expansion continues for our other brands, especially COS and & Other Stories, which continue to do well and will expand even more rapidly next year.”          

The information in this Interim Report is that which H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) is required to disclose under Sweden’s Securities Market Act. It will be released for publication at 8.00 (CET) on 26 September 2013. This Interim Report, and other information about H&M, is available at www.hm.com.

CONTACT PERSONS

Nils Vinge, IR                                       +46-8-796 52 50
Karl-Johan Persson, CEO                +46-8-796 55 00 (switchboard)
Jyrki Tervonen, CFO                          +46-8-796 55 00 (switchboard)                

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ)
SE-106 38 Stockholm
Phone: +46-8-796 55 00, Fax: +46-8-24 80 78, E-mail: info@hm.com
Registered office: Stockholm, Reg. No. 556042-722

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) was founded in Sweden in 1947 and is quoted on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. The company’s business concept is to offer fashion and quality at the best price. In addition to H&M, the group includes the brands COS, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday, & Other Stories as well as H&M Home. The H&M Group has more than 3,000 stores in 52 markets including franchise markets. In 2012, sales including VAT were SEK 140,948 million and the number of employees was more than 104,000. For further information, visit www.hm.com.