Metro Group shareholders approve demerger | Progresiv
The shareholders of the Metro Group have approved its demerger into two independent companies, with a near-unanimous vote at its Annual General Meeting. 
Both companies have already been operating as independent entities since October 2016. The vote formally approves the split of the group into the Metro (wholesale & food) and Ceconomy (consumer electronics) businesses, paving the way for independent listings on the stock exchange.
The group has said the move will help both companies to become “faster, more focused and more agile”. It will also result in the reconstitution of the Supervisory Boards of both companies.
In terms of results, the Metro Group has reported a weak set for its fiscal first quarter, but reiterated its forecast for the full-year. For the quarter, overall sales declined by 0.6% to 16.99 billion euros, while underlying operating profit was down 0.8% to 821 million euros. The group noted that the results were affected by the lack of one-off gains and currency fluctuations, and on an adjusted basis, like-for-like sales edged up 0.1%.
The Cash & Carry unit saw sales decline by 0.3% to 8.02 billion euros (+0.7% LFL on a constant-currency basis), the Media-Saturn unit reported flat sales at 6.89 billion euros (flat LFL), while the Real banner saw sales decrease by 4% to 2.06 billion euros (-1.7% LFL).
Despite the results, Chairman Olaf Koch noted: “We performed solidly in a challenging market environment during the first quarter of the new financial year…. We remain confident that we will achieve our full-year sales and earnings targets”.
For the year, Metro expects sales and like-for-like sales to grow slightly. (www.kamcity.com)
