DUESSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - Metro reported that its profit attributable to the shareholders from continuing operations for the financial year 2018/19 rose to 405 million euros or 1.12 euros per share from 357 million euros or 0.98 euros per share in the prior year.
Profit attributable to the shareholders from continuing operation, including Metro China, grew to 523 million euros or 1.44 euros per share from 443 million euros or 1.22 euros per share in the prior year.
EBITDA excluding earnings contributions from real estate transactions, including Metro China, were 1.173 billion euros, compared to 1.242 billion euros in the fiscal year 2017/18. Adjusted for currency effects, the decrease was 4.2%.
Reported sales, including Metro China, were 29.9 billion euros, up 1.5% from the previous year reflecting negative currency effects, mainly in Turkey and Russia. Adjusted for currency effects reported sales rose by 2.5%.
Annual sales from continuing operations grew to 27.08 billion euros from 26.79 billion euros last year.
Metro's Like-for-like sales growth in the financial year 2018/19 including Metro China reached 2.4%. This was the highest growth for Metro Wholesale in the last decade, the company said in a statement.
In October 2019, Metro agreed to sell a majority stake in Metro China to Wumei. As a result of the sale, Metro China was reported as a discontinued operation as of 30 September 2019. Hence the discontinued operations primarily include METRO China as well as the hypermarket business.
Metro AG expects both transactions to be closed shortly. Therefore, the outlook for financial year 2019/20 only covers the continuing operations excluding METRO China and Real.
The Management Board and Supervisory Board will propose a stable dividend of 0.70 euros per share.
Looking ahead for the financial year 2019/20, the company expects total sales and like-for-like sales to grow by 1.5% to 3%. Before transformation costs for efficiency measures, it expects annual EBITDA excluding earnings contributions from real estate transactions to be roughly at the level of the past financial year's 1.021 billion euros.
The company expects to close Real and China transactions will have significant impact on financial year 2019/20. It expects net proceeds of more than 1.5 billion euros.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX