PARIS — Groupe Galeries Lafayette reported a 16 percent drop in 2009 net profits to 189 million euros, or $255 million.
Sales for the year, excluding value-added taxes, slid 3.8 percent to 4.77 billion euros, or $6.43 billion.
Dollar figures are converted from euros at average exchange rates for the period.
Operating profits for the period slid 18.8 percent to 326 million euros, or $440 million.
Group Galeries Lafayette, which includes the landmark French department store plus retail chains Monoprix and BHV and the financial services arm LaSer, noted it opened its first store in Dubai last year.
The group plans to open a 150,000-square-foot store in Casablanca, Morocco, in 2011, while it mulls the possibility of opening up in China.