Red numbers again: Metro wants to grow and puts off shareholders

Despite strong additional income, the bottom line is that the wholesale group does not make any money. For the shareholders, there is again nothing to gain when it comes to dividends. But that should change. CEO Greubel raises the medium-term goals. The shareholders should also benefit from this.

The wholesale group Metro wants to earn more in the new financial year and is again promising its shareholders a dividend. For the past year 2021/22 (as of the end of September), however, the shareholders are left empty-handed. In the medium term, CEO Steffen Greubel wants to further boost growth and raised his medium-term goals.

In the past fiscal year 2021/22, Metro increased sales by more than a fifth to almost 30 billion euros, also driven by rising inflation. All divisions of the Düsseldorf group increased. Adjusted operating income (Ebitda) climbed to almost 1.4 billion euros, as Metro announced after the market closed. The bottom line is that the group wrote a loss of 331 – significantly more than the minus 45 million euros in the previous year.

Earnings per share (EPS) were also negative – meaning there is no payout for shareholders. A year earlier, in the 2020/21 financial year, the SDAX group had canceled the dividend payment due to the net loss and the uncertainties related to the Covid 19 pandemic.

But that should change. “Growth will remain our focus in the coming year,” emphasized Greubel. In 2022/23, sales should increase by five to ten percent, earnings per share should be positive again and a return to dividend payments is expected. Adjusted operating income (Ebitda) will shrink by 75 million to 225 million euros due to “inflation-related cost increases”.

Greubel has raised his medium-term goals up to 2024/25. The average growth in sales should be five to ten (previously: three to five) percent, Ebitda should increase by five to seven (three to five) percent compared to the 2020/21 financial year.

Greubel drives Metro’s focus on wholesale. To this end, he is expanding the business of supplying restaurants and hotels and is dovetailing the traditional branch business more closely with online activities. Metro has a network of locations with 661 stores and is still active in Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sales there increased in the past financial year.