(Reuters) -Poland's biggest e-commerce platform Allegro expects losses in its international segment in the fourth quarter, it said on Thursday, prompting a sharp fall in its share price.
Allegro's shares were down 7.5% by 1005 GMT.
In its domestic market, the company has so far defended its position from competitors, such as Amazon, which launched in Poland in 2021, and said it expected domestic earnings to increase in the fourth quarter, which includes the peak Christmas season.
Analysts said disappointment in the international segment, which Allegro is expanding, had prompted the sell-off.
In Poland, fourth-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are expected to rise 20%-23% year on year, the company said.
But the company, which plans to launch in Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia next year, expects adjusted EBITDA loss between 160 million and 180 million zlotys ($39.61 million to $44.56 million) in its international segment.
The cost of the launches and the still large investment in developing the platform in the Czech Republic, where Allegro launched this year, could result in a loss approaching about 400 million zlotys in 2024, Trigon brokerage analysts wrote in a note.
CFO Jon Eastick said that Allegro would go back to investing for profitable growth in future quarters. Planned consolidated capital expenditure of between 450 and 480 million zlotys this year was "a low point," he said.
Gross merchandise value (GMV), an industry metric used to measure transaction volumes, rose in Poland by 10.5% to 13.3 billion zlotys in the third quarter, and the company said it expects growth of 9%-11% in the fourth quarter.
($1 = 4.0587 zlotys)
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Kim Coghill, Varun H K and Barbara Lewis)
