Metro shareholders vote for split – MIRROR ONLINE

Tuesday, 07.02.2017 01:42 PM

a large majority have approved, the shareholders of the splitting of the Metro . At the annual General meeting in Düsseldorf 99.95 percent of the capital present voted in total for the plans of the management Board and the Supervisory Board, to share the trade group into a food specialist and an electronics dealer. Required a majority of 75 per cent.

group CEO Olaf Koch had previously advertised to the approval of the shareholders for the big step. The distribution of Metro to accelerate that growth, more market value, and partnerships and acquisitions easier. The strategies of the two companies were now “as different as they can be,” said cook. Therefore, it would not make sense, to keep them more together under one roof.

cook is aiming to the middle of the year, the decomposition of Metro into two separate companies: a food specialist, in addition to the major Metro markets, Real supermarkets, and electronics retailers with a new art name of Ceconomy, under whose roof the chains Media Markt and Saturn are to act. The new company will be listed in the MDax index.

support got cooking of a number of shareholders ‘ representatives. Alexander Elsmann of the protection of capital investors (SdK), said the Metro have tried in the past, “everything that you can try in the trade”. However, this did not boost growth. “Segregation is the logical consequence”, the shareholder representatives.

review: Only advisors and managers benefit

Jella Benner-Heinacher of the Deutsche schutzvereinigung für wertpapierbesitz (DSW) spoke of an “act of liberation”. You hope that the years of endless restructuring in the Metro would find an end. “It will not be a quick start, rather Start with the handbrake on.” The fine-tuning of both companies will take some time. Nevertheless, they welcomed the step. “We finally have a new perspective.”

But there were also critical voices. One of the shareholders, called the 100-million-Euro split-up an “economic zero-sum game” that is known only to advisors and managers benefited. The decomposition is not a panacea, warned shareholders ‘ representatives Elsmann. Construction sites remained. It was unclear about how it should go when long-time problem child of the group, the supermarket chain Real. Also be open, whether it will remain in the Executive Board, referred to costs for the division, said Elsmann. Benner-Heinacher criticized the management salaries in two companies as too high, this would correspond rather to those of the Dax-corporations.

Metro has been shrinking for years. Always a great group, were sold in parts – such as the Department stores Galeria Kaufhof or the foreign business of the supermarket chain Real. Metro therefore lost the unofficial title of the largest German retail group, and had to vacate his place in the Dax. The decomposition is now to bring a new impetus.

The “new” Metro is coming according to the plans, in the future, on a turnover of around 37 billion euros, run is the current group CEO Olaf Koch. The shareholders of the “old” Metro will receive shares in this new company, in the allocation ratio of 1:1. Media-Saturn CEO Pieter Haas to lead Ceconomy, which should emerge from the existing Metro and in the financial year 2015/2016 a revenue of around 22 billion euros generated.