BERLIN — Metro Group is selling its Cash & Carry business in Vietnam. Thailand’s Berli Jucker Public Company Ltd. will take over Metro’s complete wholesale business in Vietnam, including 19 Cash & Carry stores and the related real estate, for a value of 655 million euros, or $875.3 million at current exchange.
Metro said the transaction, expected to be completed in the first half of 2015 pending regulatory approval, would increase its 2014-2015 fiscal-year earnings before interest and taxation by a “mid-three-digit million-euro range.”
The Düsseldorf-based Metro is Europe’s fourth-largest retailer, with holdings including department stores, hypermarkets and electronics stores, as well as cash and carry. It has been operating in Vietnam since 2002.
“Asia will remain as important as ever to Metro Group and we will continue to invest into the focus and expansion countries of Metro Cash & Carry, as well as into strategically important customer-focused projects like multichannel retail and thereby secure our future growth,” commented Olaf Koch, chairman of Metro’s management board.
According to its most recent financial figures released July 31, Metro’s Cash & Carry division registered a drop in nominal sales of 2.2 percent for its third quarter of its 2013-2014 fiscal year; like-for-like sales rose by 2 percent. In the same period, Metro registered a net loss of 63 million euros, or $86.4 million euros, due to portfolio optimization and efficiency measures, according to the company.