Metro Reports $12.2 Million Loss In 1Q

From Forbes:

German department store and supermarket operator Metro AG said Thursday it swung to a loss in the first quarter after buying stores for Wal-Mart Stores Group Inc. and as the German government boosted the sales tax.

The loss for the three months through March 31 came to euro9 million ($12.2 million), compared with a profit of euro7 million in the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales rose 12 percent to euro14.9 billion ($20.3 billion).

Metro bought Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people )’s 85 sites in Germany last year for an undisclosed sum along with the Polish stores of France’s Geant. That ate into the company’s profit, along with the German government’s decision to increase the value added tax paid by consumers to 19 percent from 16 percent on Jan. 1 in an attempt to control the budget deficit in Europe’s biggest economy.

Metro also said it expects to boost sales by as much as 9 percent in the current year.

Shares in Metro gained 0.9 percent to euro57.61 ($78.30) in Frankfurt.

Posted by Vasudha Desikan on Friday, May 04, 2007