Leading Mexican retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico is expected to post a strong 15 percent rise in third-quarter profits as it uses promotions aimed at shoppers with little money to spend trying to beat the recession.

The retailer, known as Walmex, is expected to have earned 3.753 billion pesos ($278 million) in the July-to-September period, compared with 3.269 billion pesos in the same quarter last year, according to a Reuters poll of five analysts.

Quarterly revenue is anticipated up 12 percent at 64.424 billion pesos. New store openings and traffic continue to be revenue catalysts, although average ticket per customer is stalled due to the challenging (economic) environment, Banamex brokerage said in a report.

Mexico's economy has been driven into its worst recession in decades by slumping U.S. demand for its manufactured exports.

Walmex, controlled by U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc, is expected to post earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 6.243 billion pesos in the third quarter, up 14 percent from a year ago.

Operating profit is expected to rise at a similar pace.

Walmex, which competes against Soriana and Comercial Mexicana in the Mexican market, is due to post quarterly financial results on Thursday after the markets close.

Following is a table with the average of the analysts' estimates in noninflation-adjusted pesos:

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2009 2008 PERCENT

JULY-SEPT JULY-SEPT CHANGE
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Revenue 64.424 bln 57.698 bln +11.7 pct
EBITDA 6.243 bln 5.459 bln +14.4 pct
Operating profit 5.104 bln 4.452 bln +14.6 pct
Net profit 3.753 bln 3.269 bln +14.8 pct
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($1 = 13.5035 pesos at end of September)
(Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz and Gabriela Lopez; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

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