BR Malls give discount to attract tenants

Sao Paulo-the administrator of BR Malls malls said yesterday that''s using discounts to lure major retailers for their ventures, facing a difficult scenario for retailers because of the recession and retraction of consumption.
In a conference call with market analysts about the quarterly results released last Friday, the company''s financial Vice President, Frederick Villa, gave no details about the level of discounts that the BR Malls are granting. He said, however, that the company is "losing a little in the short term, but we''re bringing stronger retailers that can bring more people to our malls (...) We''re looking for the long term ".
Current scenario
During the talk with analysts, company executives commented that still await improvement in retail scenario in the second half due to the change of Government. Second Villa, the company is seeing a "tough scenario for retail, but with the change of Government, I think we can see some more improvement for the second half of the year, maybe in the fourth quarter".
They stressed also that the weakness in sales of supermarkets, furniture, appliances and fuels did the Brazilian retail sector fall back with strength in March, leading the industry to close the first quarter with the worst historical result, retreating 7% on quarterly reading, which also hurt the company''s results, you can see highly associated with the retail performance.
Numbers
Despite the broad setting of retail shrinkage, BR Malls announced on Friday a net profit of 131 million R$ for the first quarter, reversing a loss a year earlier. According to the company, the balance sheet was supported by the appreciation of the real against the dollar in the period, which boosted the financial result. The recipe, motivated by weak consumption, went to R$ 331.471 million, 2.5% drop compared to the previous year, when the figure was 339.858 million R$.
The Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) reached 244.058 million R$ in the three months early 2016, compared to 260.964 million recorded in R$ same period last year, a fall of 6.5%. According to the statement from the company, the selling expenses skyrocketed more than 90% in the comparison year, totaling R$ 27.3 million, with most of the increase and the allowance for doubtful accounts.