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Tag: metro AG

  • Alibaba’s Ant Financial buys WorldFirst for $700m

    Alibaba’s Ant Financial buys WorldFirst for $700m

    Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial says it plans to buy UK-headquartered money-transfer company WorldFirst. And in separate news, the Chinese e-commerce behemoth is in discussions over investing in the Metro China wholesale retail business.

    The WorldFirst deal will allow Ant Financial to gain market share in Europe’s fintech and payments industries and will give it an established retail network of currency-exchange stores covering cities including Sydney, Australia; London and Amsterdam, as well as throughout Asia. It has 600 employees in seven international offices and claims to have exchanged more than US$67 billion for 130,000 customers since its launch in 2004.

    The company also had outlets in the US but has reportedly closed these to avoid potential regulatory hurdles with the sale to a Chinese-owned business.

    Ant Financial last year unsuccessfully tried to acquire US-based money-transfer company MoneyGram, largely due to opposition from US lawmakers.

    Metro move

    Meanwhile, Alibaba is in talks to buy a share of German wholesaler Metro AG’s Chinese business.

    Neither company has confirmed or denied the talks are underway and they are at an early stage and may break down.

    Metro China operates 95 stores and struggled to achieve profitability in the market until recently. Metro sales in Asia rose 7 per cent to US$1.17 billion in the December quarter.  Most of the Metro China stores are in tier 1 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.

    Metro is holding talks with other parties as well ahead of an official sale process.

    Olaf Koch, Metro’s CEO, confirmed this week that the company was considering potential partnerships with Chinese companies. Metro and Alibaba have already cooperated online.

    “We are growing continually and we are profitable [in China],” Koch said at the time Metro released its first-quarter results.

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  • Metro Cash & Carry India to open smaller stores to expand quickly

    Metro Cash & Carry India to open smaller stores to expand quickly

    Metro Cash and Carry India is turning to smaller stores to speed up its network rollout as it tries to reach profitability.

    The German discount wholesaler is about to open its 27th store in the market which will be just 40,000sqft in size, far smaller than the 75,000-100,000sqft format of most existing stores.

    The new compact store in Ghaziabad follows another of similar size in Nasik.

    Arvind Mediratta, CEO and MD of Metro Cash and Carry India, says going forward new stores will be between 40,000sqft  and 50,000 sqft. “We are doing away with bigger stores in the range of 75,000-100,000sqft,” he said.

    The smaller footprint has also been necessitated by a lack of development sites: a 100,000sqft store requires about eight acres of land, an area not easy to find in cities.

    “The store format of 40,000sqft is easy to scale up,” Mediratta said in an interview. “A lot of people think more space means more sales. Customers don’t come to you more often because you have a bigger store.”

    Metro Cash and Carry India is targeting 50 stores by 2020, but given the move to smaller outlets, that number may be surpassed, said Mediratta.

    “[But] we don’t want to get into reckless expansion. In our business, to make money the cost of real estate has to be right. It is not just about the availability of the real estate but it has also to be at the right price,” he said.

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  • German giant buys Classic Fine Foods

    German giant buys Classic Fine Foods

    German retailer Metro AG has paid $290 million to buy Singapore restaurant supplier Classic Fine Foods Group from private equity owned EQT.

    CFF operates in 25 cities, including Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, London, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta. The deal will expand Metro Cash & Carry’s presence from 26 countries to 36.

    Metro said in a statement the acquisition would strengthen its wholesale subsidiary Metro Cash & Carry by bolting on an experienced food service distribution arm.

    “It provides access to growth and value creation potential in the attractive premium foodservice distribution markets. The transaction covers the operations and all fixed assets of CFF for an enterprise value of $290 million plus an earn-out of up to $38 million depending on the EBITDA performance in 2015 to 2017,” the company said.

    “Metro Cash & Carry aims to strongly expand its FSD operations. With the acquisition of CFF we strengthen our value proposition and enlarge our wholesale market presence fuelling future sales and earnings growth“, said Olaf Koch, chairman of Metro AG’s management board.

    Pieter Boone, CEO of Metro Cash & Carry, added: “With Classic Fine Foods, we found the perfect partner to expand in high growth Asian FSD markets. CFF has a strong market position and a unique exposure to Asian mega cities and Middle East. CFF partners with some of the world’s most sought after fine food producers and has excellent customer relationships in the high margin premium Hotels, Restaurants and Caterers (HoReCa) segment. The acquisition boosts our FSD capabilities widening the services for our HoReCa customers.”

    CFF, founded in 1999, has its own distribution and warehousing network in the cities in which it operates. Metro says post- acquisition, CFF will remain largely independent, maintaining its own sourcing base and distribution network.

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  • Metro AG to open imported items retailer in FTZ

    Metro AG to open imported items retailer in FTZ

    German retailer group Metro AG is planning to open an imported items specialty retailer inside Shanghai’s Free Commerce Zone by the top of this yr to seize a slice of the booming imported items market.

    Metro AG stated it expects e-commerce transaction might make up as a lot as 10 % of its general revenue in China inside one or two years.

    “We’ll shift our focus to enlargement from opening new shops to renovating present ones to raised go well with e-commerce consumers. For the web enterprise, we additionally hope to focus on extra company shoppers with a view to assure our revenue margin,” president of Metro Money & Carry China Jeroen de Groot informed a press briefing right now.

    It’s nonetheless discussing the small print with the Shanghai FTZ authorities relating to the availability chain and stock administration amenities.

    The corporate at present unveiled a modern format of its on-line buying website that permits consumers to select their close by department for simpler supply and a real-time reflection of merchandise in inventory.

    Tao Yuan, basic supervisor of Metro Money & Cary’s e-commerce unit, stated supply for particular person consumers might be dealt with by native courier agency SF Categorical and Zhaijisong Categorical Supply.

    By the top of this yr, it hopes to cowl altogether 80 Metro retailers in China in 56 cities. At present it’s obtainable to shoppers in 21 cities.

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