Metro AG, Germany's largest retailer, said profit jumped 70 percent last year as the company boosted sales in eastern Europe and soccer's World Cup prompted shoppers to buy more televisions.
Net income from continuing operations climbed to 1.05 billion euros ($1.4 billion), or 2.64 euros a share, from 618 million euros, or 2.47 euros, in 2005, Metro said today in a statement handed out at its Dusseldorf headquarters. That beat the median estimate of 873 million euros from a Bloomberg survey of five analysts.
Metro has expanded outside Germany and now gets more than half its revenue from other countries. The company added stores last year in Ukraine and Romania. Its Saturn and Media Markt electronics chains sold new televisions for sports fans to watch the World Cup in June and July, and also benefited as Germans bought goods ahead of a tax increase in January.
``The year 2006 was our strongest growth year since 1998,'' Chief Executive Officer Hans-Joachim Koerber said in the statement. ``In 2006, more than 50 percent of our sales and about two-thirds of our earnings were generated abroad.''
Shares of Metro rose 2 cents to 56.11 euros yesterday, posting a gain of 26 percent over the past year and increasing the company's market value to 18.3 billion euros.
Overall company sales rose to 59.9 billion euros in the year ended Dec. 31 from 55.7 billion euros a year earlier.
The proportion of electronics sales from outside Germany increased to about 50 percent in the year after the company expanded from Italy to Spain, Greece and Poland.
Earnings per share from continuing operations rose to 2.64 euros from 2.47 euros in 2005. Analysts expected per-share earnings on that basis of 2.67 euros.
source:www.bloomberg.com
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