Albertsons Companies, LLC reported unaudited consolidated earnings results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 2, 2017. For the 12 weeks ended December 2, 2017, the company reported net sales and other revenue of $13,599.2 million against $13,613.8 million a year ago. Operating loss was $95.0 million against income of $153.9 million a year ago. Loss before income taxes was $305.4 million against $32.1 million a year ago. Net income was $218.1 million against loss of $36.2 million a year ago. EBITDA was $332.9 million against $605.3 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA, a Non-GAAP Measure, was $429.0 million, or 3.2% of Net sales and other revenue, for the third quarter of fiscal 2017 compared to $674.8 million, or 5.0% of Net sales and other revenue, for the third quarter of fiscal 2016. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA primarily reflects lower gross profit, higher employee wage and benefit costs and deleveraging of sales on fixed costs in the third quarter of fiscal 2017 compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2016.

For the 40 weeks ended December 2, 2017, the company reported net sales and other revenue of $45,890.9 million against $45,861.6 million a year ago. Operating loss was $218.2 million against income of $454.5 million a year ago. Loss before income taxes was $932.8 million against $418.3 million a year ago. Net loss was $342.0 million against loss of $407.9 million a year ago. Net cash provided by operating activities was $710.6 million against $1,109.3 million a year ago. Payments for property, equipment and intangibles, including payments for lease buyouts were $1,062.7 million against $1,052.3 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $1,685.9 million, or 3.7% of Net sales and other revenue, for the first 40 weeks of fiscal 2017 compared to $2,130.0 million, or 4.6% of Net sales and other revenue, for the first 40 weeks of fiscal 2016. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA primarily reflects lower gross profit, higher employee wage and benefit costs and deleveraging of sales on fixed costs in the first 40 weeks of fiscal 2017 compared to the first 40 weeks of fiscal 2016. EBITDA was $1,208.4 million against $1,739.7 million a year ago.

In fiscal 2017, the company continues to expect to spend approximately $1.5 billion on capital expenditures that includes approximately $200 million in integration capital. Identical store sales trends have turned positive in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017.

The company anticipated improvements to Adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2018 as a result of $100 million in expected additional synergies from the Safeway acquisition as the SuperValu transition services agreement winds down, as well as from the implementation of $150 million of identified cost reduction initiatives. The company believes these synergy and cost savings initiatives, together with continuing identical store sales momentum, will result in improvements to Adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2018, which currently estimated to approximate $2.7 billion. With much of the Safeway integration behind, capital expenditures for fiscal 2018 to be approximately $1.2 billion, which is a reduction of approximately $300 million from fiscal 2017. Though the company is decreasing capital expenditures, they will increase investments in technology in fiscal 2018.