Wal-Mart profits may be hit by overseas bribery probe

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that is now "probable" it will incur losses related to allegations that company representatives had bribed officials in Mexico to speed up expansion there.

Wal-Mart said in its annual report, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, that it could not estimate how much loss would come to because of the complexity of the related probes and internal review, but that it would not have a material effect on its business.

The bribery allegations surfaced in a New York Times report last year that said the company had intentionally stifled an early internal probe into claims that Wal-Mart de Mexico officials had paid bribes years earlier to help build stores there.

The matter cost Wal-Mart $157 million in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31 and the tally will rise, the retailer said.

"We expect to continue to incur costs ... in conducting our on-going review and investigations," Wal-Mart said. As of three months earlier, the costs had come to $99 million.

Last year, Wal-Mart made a profit of $17 billion on sales of $469 billion.