Magazine Luiza can accelerate contributions this year and increase focus on marketplace

The Magazine Luiza's capital structure to accelerate investment and see a lot of space to gain market share in 2019, with a focus on adding vendors and new categories of products to the marketplace, in addition to expand credit operations. " Although we have grown so much in the last year, still we think we can grow more in the future, especially in the light of the exponencialidade character of the marketplace, which tends to be increasingly relevant to the growth of the company, "says the the Chief Executive of Magazine Luiza, Frederico Trajano, in Conference call with analysts Friday. Last week the retailer unveiled high 14.5% profit in the fourth quarter, to $189.6 million, with strong growth in sales and expense dilution. In the year, the company earned R $597 million, surpassing in 54% the result of 2017. " Celebrate with this result, especially because it was a year away from potential macroeconomics the Brazil's growth. Looking forward, for the first time in three years, we have that in our favour, "said Trajano, when asked about the prospects for 2019. In the coming months, one of the main challenges of the company will increase the frequency of purchases of customers, in particular application. Currently, the app has 6 million active users, said the Executive, adding that 30% to 40% of the customers the uninstall after purchase. "Therefore, we work to make it even lighter," he said. He stressed that the long-term goal of Magazine Luiza is to add services to the application and turn it into a Super App, the example of the Chinese WeChat. "Our ambition is that the consumer can do everything within the application environment, but we have several years to reach the level that China is today," he said. Trajan still ruled out the creation of a subscription model similar to "Prime" the American giant Amazon.com. "Any paid program that revenge here in Brazil and I don't intend to copy that model. Has several platforms that managed to grow out of Brazil without applying this model of the Amazon, "said the ceo. In a report, analysts of Guide Investments considered the balance of fourth quarter of Magazine Luiza strong, highlighting the rapid growth in ecommerce, the dilution of operating expenses, plus net debt reduction and improvement in working capital. "We remain optimistic about the company, which continues to show significant developments," they wrote in the report. According to the details released by the company, whereas all channels, including the marketplace, R $5.94 billion were sold between October and December, 34.9% compared to the previous year. Quarterly net revenue rose 27.3 percent on the same basis, to $4.61 billion. The same stores, Magazine Luiza showed high of 16.1% in sales, up from 15% advance checked the year before. Meanwhile, the growth of online sales, including third parties, slowed to 57.4%, from 60%. Still, the involvement of e-commerce in total sales rose to 37.7%, compared to 32.3 percent seen in the fourth quarter. The higher revenues compensated with the increase of the total expenditure, boosting in 13% operating results as measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), to $353.5 million. The Magazine Luiza has invested $130.2 million in the period R, with the funds mainly to the opening of shops, reform, technology and logistics. In the year, the company disbursed $364.4 million R, 113% more about 2017, including opening of 96 new physical points. Separately, the retailer says that your Board of Directors approved the creation of new share buyback program of up to 4.5 million shares, equivalent to 6.65% of the outstanding shares in the market.