Food
German retail group Metro sees a light at the end of the Covid tunnel. The company is sticking to its targets for the current 2020/21 financial year, but the trajectory is changing slightly.
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The German competition watchdog has approved the acquisition of a total of 116 Real stores by Kaufland and Globus. Edeka also wanted to acquire a number of stores, but this decision was postponed.
Cosmetics
Belgian Olivier Van den Bossche, who has been working for Metro since 2017, will lead operations at international lifestyle retailer Rituals from 1 January.
Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky announced he now owns over forty per cent of the voting rights of Metro. It will allow him to exert even more influence on the direction of the German group.
Now that top executive Olaf Koch has announced his departure, Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky is making a fresh attempt to get his hands on the German foodservice company Metro.
Olaf Koch, CEO of German retailer Metro, is resigning at the end of the year. As he will not complete his current term that only ends in 2022, the German retail giant will have to quickly start looking for a successor.
German wholesaler Metro has been approached by American catering multinational Sysco about a takeover. The Americans want to buy Metro in order to continue their European expansion.
Investment group SCP (from Luxembourg, but with Russian backers) has acquired Metro's ailing hypermarket chain Real. The German chain is to be cut in pieces, 10,000 jobs are threatened.
General
German retail giant Metro has finally reached an agreement with the consortium of property investor X+Bricks on the sale of its Real hypermarkets. The deal is causing unrest among the staff.
What does Daniel Kretinsky have in mind for Casino and Metro? The unruly Czech investor, with a penchant for sectors 'on their way back', has set his sights on the European hypermarket sector, but what are his intentions?
Beisheim and Meridian, two major shareholders of Metro, have increased their stakes in the German group to just over 23 %. They also want to buy more shares in the future - possibly hoping to frustrate rival stakeholder Daniel Kretinsky?
Vesa Equity Investment, Daniel Kretinsky's investment fund, has increased its stake in French retailer Casino to above the 5 % threshold. Analysts now wonder of the Metro owner might be aiming for further consolidation.
German wholesaler Metro has exceeded expectations in its latest quarter. Western-European growth was 0.5 %, total turnover increased 2.2 %.
The German Metro group has posted encouraging results in the past year: its Chinese operations have been sold, Real also found a buyer and like-for-like sales have increased by 2.4 %, the strongest growth in a decade.
The ongoing efforts of the consortium surrounding real estate investor X+Bricks to win over Metro's Real chain appear to be bearing fruit. The German wholesaler has confirmed that it has started exclusive negotiations with the consortium, to be completed by the end of January.
Property investor X+Bricks has increased its bid on German retail chain Real, but its owner Metro maintains that it rather hopes to reach an agreement with Redos.
