Metro AG reported Christmas revenue that met analysts’ estimates on strength in its consumer electronics unit, as the German retailer expects to return to growth this year.
Revenue declined 1.5 per cent to €17.1 billion ($18.6 billion) in the three months through December, Metro said in a recent statement. That matched the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The Düsseldorf-based company is scheduled to report full first-quarter results on 11 February.
Chief executive officer Olaf Koch is investing in sprucing up stores and adding e-commerce sales after selling underperforming businesses, including the Galeria Kaufhof department stores, last year. Revenue at Media Markt and Saturn computer and appliance stores open at least a year rose 0.4 per cent, gaining for a sixth quarter, while the Kaufhof sale shrank Metro’s overall size.
Metro had a “very good Christmas business, particularly in our domestic market,” Koch said in the statement.
Metro has been paying down debt, returning cash to shareholders via a higher dividend, and signalling a readiness to make more acquisitions. The shares rose 20 per cent in the fourth quarter, compared with an 8-per-cent rise in Germany’s mid-cap MDAX Index.
The company reiterated its forecasts. Metro said on 15 December that it expected slight increases in sales and adjusted earnings before interest and tax excluding currency shifts. Metro said on 7 January that first-quarter earnings before interest and taxes will include €400 million in cash from the sale of its wholesale business in Vietnam.
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