DUESSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - METRO AG said that it has withdrawn its guidance for the financial year 2019/20 due to expected negative impact of the Covid-19 on sales and earnings in the second half of 2019/2020.
The company said it achieved a development in sales and earnings within the respective guidance range in the first half of the 2019/20 financial year.
For the fiscal year 2019/20 METRO had guided a growth of total sales and like-for-like-sales of between 1.5% and 3% and an EBITDA excluding earnings contributions from real estate transactions roughly at the level of the previous financial year.
Until the end of February, the operating business was largely unaffected from Covid-19 and developed strongly in the upper end of the guidance range.
At the beginning of the crisis situation in Europe triggered by Covid-19, METRO was able to overcompensate the sales and earnings losses of some customer groups initially due to positive sales and earnings effects in other customer groups. Since mid-March, however, the overall trend in terms of sales and earnings has clearly been negative.
METRO expects that each additional month with the current level of restrictions will result in sales losses of about 500 million euros or 1.5% to 2%-points of sales growth.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX