H&M Q3 pretax profit matches expectations

Hennes & Mauritz, the world's second-biggest fashion retailer, reported a fiscal third-quarter pretax profit in line with expectations on Thursday and said sales so far in September were up 12 percent.

The Swedish company said pretax profit was largely unchanged at 6.94 billion crowns ($826 million) in the June to August period from a year earlier. The mean forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts was 6.93 billion.

H&M sales recover in September after weak August

Hennes & Mauritz said sales rebounded in September after unseasonably warm weather prompted the world's second-biggest fashion retailer to report its weakest monthly sales growth in more than two years for August.

"When the weather became more normal in September, sales took off again and we are looking forward to an exciting fashion autumn," Chief Executive Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement.

The Swedish budget retailer said sales from Sept. 1 to Sept. 22 rose 12 percent in local currencies, up from a rise of just 1 percent in August. Last week, rival Inditex reported a brisk start to the autumn season, with sales in local currencies in the six weeks to Sept. 10 up 16 percent.

"Current trading looks a bit slower than consensus had hoped at this stage," said Societe Generale analyst Anne Critchlow, who added that the shares were likely to perform in line with the market as they had already underperformed in the last month.

H&M said pretax profit was largely unchanged at 6.94 billion crowns ($826 million) in the June to August period from a year earlier compared to a mean forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts for 6.93 billion.

H&M, which has been slower than Inditex to offer its garments online, said it planned to extend ecommerce to another nine markets including Japan and Ireland in the next financial year on top of the 23 markets it will cover this year.

It also reiterated it plans to open about 400 new stores this year, including 240 it expects to open in the fourth quarter - almost three new stores a day.

$1 = 8.4065 Swedish crowns