H&M reports preliminary June-August profit of around 2 billion SEK

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s H&M , the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, on Tuesday reported a preliminary third quarter profit before tax of around 2 billion crowns ($229 million).

H&M said in a statement its recovery from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic was better than expected in the June through August period.

“More full-price sales combined with strong cost control enabled the company to already turn to profit in the third quarter,” it said.

Net sales fell 19% to 50.9 billion crowns from a year earlier. Analysts had on average forecast an 18% fall, according to Refinitiv’s SmartEstimate model, which is weighted towards more recent estimates and higher-ranked analysts.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Simon Johnson)