UPDATE 1-Brazil's Assai posts 19% increase in first-quarter net profit

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SAO PAULO, April 24 (Reuters) - Brazilian food retailer Assai posted on Wednesday a 19.2% increase in its first-quarter net profit from a year earlier, as revenue rose benefited by a larger number of stores and better comparable sales.

Assai reported a 93 million reais ($18.1 million) net profit for the quarter ended in March.

Its net revenue increased 14.1% in the quarter from a year earlier to 17.2 billion reais, helped by a 5.2% increase in same stores sales and by the opening of 28 stores in the last 12 months.

Assai, which operates a chain of stores in a hybrid wholesale format, said in the earnings release it is entering in a "new stage" after years of strong expansion, which included the conversion of "Extra" hypermarkets bought from GPA .

The firm

announced late last year

the slowing down of its expected store openings in 2024, as its management works to financially deleverage the company after an aggressive expansion. It went from opening 60 stores in 2022, to 27 in 2023 and a target of about 15 this year.

Assai reported its financial leverage ratio stood at 3.75 times in the first quarter, falling from 4.69 times a year earlier and 3.80 times in the quarter ended in December.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totaled 897 million reais, rising 37.6% year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA margins rose 0.9 percentage points to 5.2%.

($1 = 5.1462 reais) (Reporting by Andre Romani; Editing by Steven Grattan)