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METRO AG Exceeds Earnings Target for Fiscal Year 2001

26.03.2002

METRO AG Exceeds Earnings Target for Fiscal Year 2001

Duesseldorf, 26 March 2002 – METRO AG, Duesseldorf, continued its course of profitable growth in fiscal year 2001 in spite of difficult macro-economic background conditions. Group sales rose by 5.5 percent to € 49.5 billion. In fiscal year 2001 the Metro Group increased its share of foreign business in total group sales to 44.4 percent. Sales of the divsions increased by 5.8 percent to about € 49 billion. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) went up by 9.2 percent to € 2.38 billion. The operating result (EBIT) of the Metro Group rose by 10.3 percent to € 1.13 billion. Because of the postive business development the divisions even managed to boost EBIT by as much as 14.8 percent. Net income for the year increased by 6.3 percent to € 449 million. After deducting of minority shares the net income for the year due to the stockholders of METRO AG amounted to € 401 million. This is equivalent to a growth rate of 11.9 percent. Earnings per Metro share increased in the year under review by 11.9 percent to € 1.23. "Thus, we have clearly exceeded our self-imposed EPS target of at least 10 percent. The consistent focus on sustainable value growth has again paid off," stressed the CEO of METRO AG, Dr. Hans-Joachim Koerber, on the occasion of the presentation of the company’s annual financial statements. As in the previous year the dividend proposal for fiscal year 2001 is € 1.02 per common stock and € 1.122 per preferred stock. In the year 2001 the Metro Group’s network of outlet chains was further increased by 80 to 2,249 locations. The company was present in 24 countries at year-end 2001. On an annual average the Metro Group employed 230,848 staff equivalent to some 187,000 Full Time Equivalents (FTE’s). This represents a growth of more than 7,000 FTE’s all told.

Substantial improvement of Economic Value Added (EVA) On the way towards earning its capital costs the Metro Group made substantial progress in fiscal year 2001. The Economic Value Added (EVA) of the group improved by a total of € 286 million to -47 million €. In comparison with the year 1999 this is an improvement of almost € 400 million. With an increase of € 180 million the divisions achieved their first positive EVA of € 130 million in the year under review. In the same time the Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) of the group could be increased from 5.4 to 7.1 percent and therefore was just under the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) of 7,3 percent. Since fiscal year 2000 the EVA is the central benchmark in the group that all strategic and investment decisions are guided by, and at the same time the benchmark of value development in the corporation. "The good development of the EVA makes clear, that the concentration on increase in value has promoted entrepreneurial thinking and acting throughout the group on a sustained level," stressed Koerber.

Profitability of sales divisions improved On the whole the sales divisions reported substantially improved profitability in fiscal year 2001. This is the result of a forceful internationalization, the consistent optimization of the merchandising concepts and the orientation of the sales divisions towards clear margin targets. Metro Cash & Carry was again one of the growth engines of the group last year, increasing its sales to more than € 22.7 billion. This is equivalent to a rise of 8.1 percent, on a like-for-like basis of 3.5 percent. The share of foreign businesses in total sales went up from 75.5 to 76.1 percent. The EBIT of the division also increased substantially, by 12.8 percent to € 625.5 million. This was managed in spite of higher start-up losses caused by international expansion, which were up by about € 32 million. The outlet chain grew again strongly with an increase of 31 to 384 locations in a total of 22 countries. The Real hypermarkets increased their sales by 2.6 percent to € 8.4 billion in spite of a fiercely competitive environment. In Germany sales went up by 2.7 percent on a like-for-like basis. This development confirms the success of the implemented repositioning measures. Real further expanded its strong position of market leadership in Germany and Poland and consolidated its good market position in Turkey. EBIT was increased by € 65.1 million to € 117.8 million in comparison with the previous year.

The Extra food stores also managed an increase in sales, rising by 2.0 percent to € 3.0 billion. On a like-for-like basis the growth rate was 0.9 percent. EBIT improved significantly from € -39.9 million by 63.9 percent to € -14.4 million. A major contribution to the good business development of the food stores was made by the fact that the modernization and optimization of the outlet chain was continued consistently. The consumer electronics centers of the Media-Saturn Group further extended their European market leadership in the year 2001. The division achieved an increase in sales of 9.5 percent to € 8.3 billion. On a like-for-like basis there was a decline of 1 percent the main reason of which was the weaker demand in the PC and telecommunication market segments in the second and third quarters. In the fourth quarter Media/Saturn already generated a double digit growth rate again. The consumer electronics centers achieved an EBIT of € 223.9 million in fiscal year 2001. Even though the high figure of the previous year of € 266 million could not be fully matched again Media/Saturn still showed an outstanding level of profitability again in the year under review. The outlet chain was consistently expanded to 357 stores with 43 new stores being opened. In this context almost 4,000 new jobs were created, about half of them in Germany. The Praktiker home improvement centers could not quite escape the generally declining trend of the DIY-business in Germany. Yet because of the good development in foreign countries they almost matched their previous year’s performance with sales of € 2.5 billion in fiscal year 2001. On a like-for-like basis they dropped by 4.8 percent. International sales, on the other hand, went up by 18.9 percent to € 483 million, which is 4.7 percent on a like-for-like basis. The substantial cut in repositioning costs led to a considerable EBIT improvement of the home improvement centers from € -29.2 million by 66.7 percent to € -9.7 million. Kaufhof Warenhaus AG increased sales by 0.8 percent to € 4.0 billion in fiscal year 2001. On a like-for-like basis sales declined by 3.7 percent. At the same time the Galeria stores performed substantially better than the other department stores. The Belgian Inno department stores acquired in April 2001 contributed € 177 million to total sales showing a much better sales development than in the previous year with a growth rate of 6.1 percent. EBIT could be improved by 3.4 percent to € 187 million mainly because of the high sales quality of the Galeria locations. By now more than 80 percent of the stores suitable for conversion are being operated on the basis of the successful Galeria concept.

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