Feb 27 (Reuters) - Australian grocer Coles Group Ltd COL.AX reported a 3% drop in its first-half profit on Thursday as a rise in financing costs associated with leases offset strong sales growth at its Supermarket business.
The country's second-largest grocer reported net profit after tax from continuing operations of A$576 million ($362.76 million) for the six months ended December 31, compared with A$594 million it posted a year ago.
That was in line with a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$574.1 million.
($1 = 1.5878 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
((Roshan.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com))
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