By Sabela Ojea

Ocado Group PLC reported Tuesday a significantly narrowed pretax loss for the first half of fiscal 2021 and said that it is keeping its full-year forecasts unchanged.

The online grocer and retail-technology specialist posted a pretax loss for the year ended May 31 of 23.6 million pounds ($32.7 million) compared with a loss of GBP40.6 million for the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose to GBP1.32 billion from GBP1.09 billion for the same period a year earlier. Revenue was expected to increase to GBP1.30 billion, taken from FactSet and based on one analyst's estimate.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--one of the company's preferred metrics, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--stood at GBP61 million from GBP19.8 million for the same period a year ago.

Regarding its outlook, the FTSE 100 listed company said that it expects to post a GBP30 million lower Ebitda contribution between the international solutions, UK solutions and logistics and other segments units, offsetting the strong retail performance's performance. Ocado retail--the core of the business--saw sales rise 20% in the period.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-06-21 0235ET