Mercator Exceeds Earnings Forecasts by 45 Percent

Ljubljana, 19 February - Slovenia's leading retailer Mercator saw sales of SIT 320bn (EUR 1.38bn) in 2002, up 12 percent on 2001 and 4.5 percent higher than forecast, the group said presenting unaudited business figures on Wednesday. Moreover, earnings exceeded forecasts by 45.2 percent, and were two percent higher than in 2001 at SIT 4.9bn (EUR 21.2m).