Ljubljana, Nov 12 - Net profit at Mercator rose in the first nine months of the year by 1 percent to 36.4 million euros ($46.36 million), Slovenia's largest food retailer said on Tuesday.
It said group net sales rose by 13 percent to 2 billion euros, adding net profit in the first nine months reached 90 percent of the profit planned for the whole of 2008.
Sales in Slovenia rose by 5 percent while sales abrod were 34 percent higher than in the same period last year.
"Despite a serious worsening of the conditions in the banking sector due to the global financial crisis, the financial operations of Mercator are undisturbed," the company said in a statement.
It said the company would continue to cut costs in the last quarter of 2008 to combat the consequences of the global financial crisis which has "a negative effect on the size and the structure of consumption".
Shares in Mercator, which operates in several Balkan markets, were down 1.52 percent on Tuesday at 197.1 euros, while the local SBI market index lost 1.81 percent.
Mercator's main shareholders announced recently that they plan to sell a total of some 65.5 percent of Mercator over the next few months.