DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - The strong euro compared to the same quarter last year has cost Metro growth. The wholesale group nevertheless sees itself on track to meet its targets after a mixed quarter. In the three months to the end of June, sales fell 3.4 percent year-on-year to 7.6 billion euros, the SDax-listed company announced in Düsseldorf on Thursday evening. In the respective local currencies - i.e. excluding the effects of translation into euros - however, earnings rose by 2.5 percent.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), adjusted for special items such as the costs of Group restructuring, fell by a quarter to 332 million euros. Sales and operating earnings were thus somewhat worse than experts had expected on average. Metro confirmed both its sales and earnings forecast for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. According to the confirmed forecast, Metro expects sales growth of five to ten percent - however, excluding currency effects and further possible disposals. Adjusted Ebitda is expected to fall by 75 to 225 million euros from just under 1.4 billion euros in 2022.

The news was initially met with price reductions on the stock exchange. On the Tradegate trading platform, the share price recently fell by around one percent compared with the Xetra closing price. So far this year, the stock has once again been one of the losers on the German stock market. Since the end of 2022, the Metro share has fallen by around 17 percent, making it one of the biggest losers on the SDax. Since the split of the former Metro Group into the now eponymous wholesale chain and the electronics retailer Ceconomy in the summer of 2017, the stock value of Metro AG has plummeted by almost 60 percent to less than three billion euros.

Due to the drop in the share price, Metro shares were relegated from the MDax to the SDax in spring 2021. Until 2012, the stock - at that time the department store chain Kaufhof was also part of the group - was even listed in Germany's leading index, the Dax. In its heyday at the end of the last millennium - i.e. in the first years after the merger of Kaufhof and Metro Cash & Carry - Metro was once worth more than 20 billion euros. Today, Ceconomy and Metro together are worth just over four billion euros.

In recent years, the Group has repeatedly divested itself of divisions abroad or entire businesses such as the Real retail chain. Because of the sharp drop in the value of the stock, the wholesaler itself became a takeover target a few years ago. The Czech entrepreneur Daniel Kretinsky wanted to buy Metro together with the Slovak Patrick Tkacs. They failed, however, but have since held 40 percent of the shares through the company EP Global Commerce. Just under one-fifth is held by the Meridian Foundation, which has invested in the company since its founding./zb/he