LONDON, April 22 Reuters Asda, Britain39;s third biggest supermarket group, reported a 24 rise in annual earnings on Monday that reflected a 7.1 rise in total sales and also said it had cut its debt.

Asda, owned by brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital, said 2023 adjusted EBITDA after rent, its preferred profit measure, was 1.08 billion pounds 1.33 billion on total sales, excluding fuel, of 21.9 billion pounds.

It said likeforlike sales rose 5.4.

Monthly industry data has, however, shown Asda consistently underperforming its bigger rivals market leader Tesco and No. 2 Sainsbury39;s.

Data from market researcher Kantar, published last month, showed Asda had a 13.8 share of Britain39;s grocery market, down 50 basis points on the year.

Asda has been burdened by finance costs due to high levels of debt since the Issas and TDR bought the business from Walmart in a 6.8 billion pound deal in 2020 which left the U.S. giant retaining a 10 stake.

Asda said its net debt at the end of 2023 was 3.8 billion pounds, net of more than 1 billion pounds of cash on the balance sheet.

It said more than 90 of this debt is secured on fixed rates of interest and it is fully committed to further deleveraging.

1 0.8076 pounds

Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar

Source Reuters