Metro: business 'significantly negatively affected' by virus

(CercleFinance.com) - German retailer Metro reported higher sales for the second quarter of its 2019/2020 fiscal year as like-for-like growth accelerated in Eastern Europe.


Second-quarter sales rose by 1.8% to 6 billion euros, with 2.3% like-for-like sales growth, it said.

EBITDA excluding transformation costs and earnings contributions from real estate transactions edged up to 133 million euros in the quarter, from 130 million euros one-year ago.

"These numbers are more or less in line with the consensus," commented Parisian broker Invest Securities.

However, business development since mid-March has been "significantly negatively affected" by Covid-19, the group warned in its statement.

Metro said it expects that every month in the current lock-down situation will cause sales to fall by 2% relative to last year.

These comments weighed on the share price today, dragging the Metro stock down 7.5%.

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