METRO increases sales by 1.6% in financial year 2016/17

• Like-for-like sales up by 0.5% in financial year 2016/17
• METRO Wholesale and Real increase like-for-like sales in Q4 by 0.5%
• Total sales rise by 0.7% in Q4; increase of 1.6% in financial year 2016/17

According to preliminary and unaudited figures, METRO increased its like-for-like sales in the financial year 2016/17 by 0.5%. Overall, sales rose by 1.6% to €37.1 billion. Sales in local currency grew by 1.1%.

"The new METRO increased sales in the first independent quarter," said Olaf Koch, Chairman of the Management Board of METRO AG. "We made some significant progress in the fourth quarter, particularly in METRO Wholesale's delivery business and Real's online business. We can look back on a positive financial year overall, in which we also successfully completed our transitional year and sharpened the focus of our business by splitting up the previous METRO GROUP."

METRO's like-for-like sales saw a year-on-year increase of 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2016/17. Both METRO Wholesale and Real increased their sales in like-for-like terms. METRO's total sales increased by 0.7% to €9.2 billion. This rise was offset by currency effects, with sales in local currency increasing more sharply by 1.6%.

METRO Wholesale (formerly METRO Cash & Carry)

Sales at METRO Wholesale rose by 0.9% in like-for-like terms in financial year 2016/17. Sales in local currency increased by 2.3%. Bolstered by positive currency effects, sales rose overall by 3.0% to €29.9 billion. Pro à Pro in France has also contributed to results since its acquisition at the start of 2017. Pro à Pro is one of France's most important providers of food service distribution (FSD).

METRO Wholesale's sales grew by 0.5% in like-for-like terms in the fourth quarter of 2016/17. Sales in local currency were up by 2.5%; however, due to negative currency effects, sales only rose by 1.3% overall to €7.4 billion. The trends observed over previous quarters generally continued. Business in Turkey generated high like-for-like sales growth again, while like-for-like sales in Russia fell and were also down slightly in Germany in this period.

Delivery business at METRO Wholesale continued to develop dynamically, with sales in financial year 2016/17 rising by over 25% to more than €4.6 billion. As a result, delivery business accounted for 16% of sales in the financial year. The acquisition of Pro à Pro also contributed to this trend. In the fourth quarter of 2016/17 delivery sales increased to €1.3 billion. This equates to 17% of total sales.

As of 30 September 2017, the METRO Wholesale network encompassed 759 locations in 25 countries, 104 of which in Germany, 239 in Western Europe, 283 in Eastern Europe and 133 in Asia. This represents an increase of 7 locations compared to the previous year's reporting date, which resulted from 13 new store openings and 6 closures. 5 new stores were opened in China, 3 in France, 2 in India and 1 each in Italy, Turkey and Japan. 2 stores were closed in Germany, while Serbia, Ukraine, China and India each closed 1 store. 5 new stores were opened in the fourth quarter of 2016/17, 2 each in France and China and 1 in Turkey.

Real

Real's sales declined by 3.1% in financial year 2016/17 to €7.2 billion, due in particular to store closures compared to the same period in the previous year. Like-for-like sales declined by 1.0% whereby sales stabilised over the course of the year after a difficult first half. On the back of third-quarter growth, like-for-like sales increased by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. This positive trend was also due to the dynamic online business, which was accompanied by an increase in marketing expenses. A high level of competition continued to be observed across many different food groups.

The positive development of the online store in Q4 was fuelled by the integration of the newly acquired Hitmeister's market place. In addition, Real now also offers online food ordering where customers can pick up their finished orders from one of 9 Real locations so far or can also have their shopping, including fresh products, delivered to their home in many regions. The delivery service is set to be rolled out across the country following a trial in Düsseldorf.

As of 30 September 2017, the Real network encompasses 282 locations in Germany. Business has been discontinued in 3 stores since the previous year's reporting date. There were no changes in the store network in Q4 2016/17.

With the annual report 2016/17, METRO will publish a forecast for financial year 2017/18. There is no forecast for financial year 2016/17 because the demerger and listing of METRO shares took place just recently in mid-July 2017.

Financial Calender 2017/18

All time specifications are CET

On 6 February 2017, the Annual General Meeting of the former METRO AG (entered into the commercial register of the district court of Düsseldorf under HRB 39473) resolved the demerger of METRO GROUP into two independent listed companies specialised in their respective market segments. The resolved demerger took effect on 12 July 2017 with the entry in the commercial register of the former METRO AG. This company has since changed its name to CECONOMY AG.
All shares in METRO Wholesale & Food Specialist AG (entered in the commercial register of the Local Court of Düsseldorf under HRB 79055) have been traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange since 13 July 2017; METRO Wholesale & Food Specialist AG has traded as METRO AG since 18 August 2017. This METRO AG trading statement for financial year 2016/17 is a purely voluntary statement.

The new METRO (formerly METRO Wholesale & Food Specialist Group or MWFS GROUP) was part of CECONOMY AG (formerly METRO AG) corporate group in financial year 2016/17 between 1 October 2016 and 12 July 2017 and did not operate as a separate group. With regard to the special characteristics of combined financial reporting, we refer to the statements in the combined financial statements of the MWFS GROUP for financial years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 prepared by the Management Board of the former METRO AG on 6 December 2016 and the condensed combined interim financial statements of the MWFS GROUP for the half-year period ending on 31 March 2017 prepared by the Management Board of the former METRO AG on 23 June 2017.

Please note: In case of doubt the German version shall prevail.

METRO is a leading international specialist in wholesale and food retail. The company operates in 35 countries and employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. In financial year 2015/16, METRO generated sales of around €37 billion. The company provides custom solutions to meet the regional and international needs of its wholesale and retail customers. With its sales brands METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry and Real as well as delivery services and digitisation initiatives METRO sets the standards for tomorrow: for customer focus, digital solutions and sustainable business models.