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METRO Group Grows Against Industry Trend in 2002

25.03.2003

METRO Group Grows Against Industry Trend in 2002

Duesseldorf, 25 March 2003 – The METRO Group ended the fiscal year 2002 against the industry trend with a positive result mainly outperforming the majority of its competitors in the process. "We fully met our forecast for 2002, almost covered our cost of capital and successfully continued our course of profitable growth and our international expansion," said the Chairman and CEO of METRO AG, Dr. Hans-Joachim Körber, when presenting the balance sheet figures.

Group sales rose by 4 percent, after adjustment for currency effects by 4.7 percent, to € 51.5 billion. The sales of the divisions increased by 5.0 percent. International sales in the METRO Group went up by 8.4 percent in fiscal 2002. The high profit and high growth sales divisions Metro Cash & Carry and Media Markt/Saturn together generated about two thirds of total group sales.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) went up by 1.4 percent to € 2.42 billion. The operating result (EBIT) increased by 3.1 percent to € 1.17 billion in the year under review. The sales divisions achieved an EBIT increase of 4.3 percent thus underlining their operational efficiency. With this earnings development the Group has outperformed the negative industry trend.

The METRO Group’s net income rose substantially by 11.8 percent to € 502 million. An optimized cost and inventory management affected this figure positively. Earnings per share increased by 10.4 percent from € 1.23 to € 1.36. "This means we fully achieved our self-imposed target for 2002 of increasing earnings per share by some 10 percent," said Körber. "The fact that we managed to achieve this in spite of the strong buying restraint on the part of consumers and the negative macroeconomic development in Germany underlines the operational efficiency of our Group." As in the previous year the proposed dividend is € 1.02 per common stock and € 1.122 per preferred stock.

The Economic Value Added (EVA) as the central metric of the value-based management of the Group was again improved in the fiscal year just ended. For the first time the METRO Group almost completely covered its cost of capital. 

At € 1.8 billion the 2002 capital expenditure volume remained only slightly below the € 1.9 billion of the previous year. The sales divisions of the METRO Group opened a total of 119 new locations. The overall outlet network of the Group was expanded to 2,310 locations in 26 countries. On an annual average some 235,000 people worked for the Group. Converted to full time equivalents the headcount of the Group increased by almost 5,000 to more than 191,000 employees.

Sales divisions gain market shares

Metro Cash & Carry as the most international and the best-selling sales division of the METRO Group continued its successful development of the past few years also in fiscal year 2002. It increased sales by 5.5 percent to € 24.0 billion thus almost generating half the total group sales. Adjusted for negative currency effects above all in Turkey and Romania, the sales volume went up by 6.4 percent. The foreign share in total sales of the division increased from 76.1 percent to 77.0 percent. Metro Cash & Carry was also able to further increase its earnings power in spite of start-up losses due to expansion. Thus, EBIT was improved by 13.4 percent to € 709.1 million. This constitutes an even more substantial increase than the one achieved last year.

The Real Hypermarket Stores outperformed competition in fiscal year 2002. They gained further market shares even though sales dropped by 2.1 percent to € 8.2 billion because of the influence of significant currency effects in Poland and Turkey. In Germany sales declined by only 1.2 percent. As a result the sales division maintained its position of leadership in the German market. Real was also able to improve its economic performance for the third year in succession: EBIT increased by 24.8 percent to € 147.0 million.

The Extra Convenience Stores generated total sales of € 2.8 billion in fiscal year 2002. This was a shortfall of 4.9 percent in comparison with the previous year. The causes of this development were above all the difficult industry environment and tougher competition in German retailing. This also had repercussions on the operating result of the sales division: EBIT dropped from € -14.4 million in the prior year to € -47.2 million in fiscal 2002.

The Media Markt/Saturn sales divisions again substantially increased the high growth tempo of the last few years in fiscal year 2002. With a growth in sales of 14.9 percent to € 9.6 billion the consumer electronics centers again strengthened their already firmly established market leadership in Europe. While the industry as a whole posted a substantial decline in sales Media Markt/Saturn achieved a sales increase of 9.6 percent in the German domestic market. In other European countries outside Germany sales even grew by as much as 25.3 percent. The share of international business in the total sales of the division increased from 33.8 percent last year to 36.8 percent. The growth of EBIT was even higher rising by 25.1 percent to € 280.2 million. "This is the best result in the corporate history of Media Markt/Saturn," said Körber. "With this performance the consumer electronics centers have again proven their earnings power in fiscal year 2002."

Praktiker increased sales by 1.6 percent over the prior year to € 2.6 billion. In Germany the home improvement centers regained market shares in a declining market trend. This is mainly due to a very successful price cutting campaign. Foreign sales rose by almost 20 percent to € 578 million accounting for 22.4 percent of total sales as opposed to 19.0 percent in the previous year. The operating profit is influenced by significantly increased marketing expenses particularly in Germany. In fiscal year 2002 EBIT was € -41.6 after € -9.7 in the previous year.

The Kaufhof Department Stores again developed better than the competition in the year 2002. In a difficult industry environment and in spite of clear buying restraint on the part of consumers they generated sales of € 3.9 billion falling only slightly short of the previous year’s level by a mere 1.8 percent. The Belgian Inno department stores contributed € 242 million to total sales again showing a positive business development. The EBIT of the department stores at the end of the reporting period was € 131.4 million which was € 55.6 million lower than in the previous year. This reflects the buying restraint of consumers last year which impacted the earnings situation particularly in the higher priced department store sector.

A Brief Overview of the METRO Group in Fiscal Year 2002 pdf (24 KB)!

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