Investor Relations

Share Performance

Performance of Metro ordinary shares in 2008 ¹

¹ Metro ordinary share including dividend reinvestment, Dow Jones Euro Stoxx Retail and DAX 30 indexed at 100. Source: Bloomberg

International stock markets suffered a significant downturn in 2008. Around the world, the global financial crisis and its reverberations unsettled investors. The 6-year growth trend was not only interrupted, but also corrected downward. The lion’s share of past years’ stock market gains vanished in a short period of time during the 2nd half of 2008. Many shares returned to the lows recorded during the last bear market in 2003.

After Germany’s DAX stock index closed the year of 2007 near its historic high of more than 8,000 points, continually rising commodity prices – particularly the sharp increase in oil prices – weighed on investors’ minds during the 1st half of 2008. Oil prices trended towards US$150 per barrel. Although the weak dollar dampened inflation outside the dollar area, inflation rates in many parts of the world rose to above-average levels. Gold once again proved its role as a hedge against inflation. The gold price peaked at more than US$1,000 per fine ounce. In this environment, the DAX fell by about 20 percent during the 1st half of 2008.

Market sentiment deteriorated drastically from summer as the impact of the financial crisis became clearer. In autumn, no day passed without bad news from the financial sector. The painful climax was reached with the insolvency of Lehman Brothers, the tradition-steeped investment bank, on 15 September 2008. In the wake of the bank’s collapse, share prices crashed around the world, at times the fear of a systemic meltdown in the financial sector arose. Joint interventions by the major developed nations helped counter the threatening collapse. While central banks drastically lowered benchmark interest rates, governments issued comprehensive guarantees or took direct stakes in financial institutions. Stock markets fell to multi-year lows during this period, and volatility reached unprecedented dimensions.

The progressing financial crisis pulled down the global real economy as well, and concerns over an imminent recession moved to the forefront. Against the backdrop of a looming recession, many companies markedly revised downward their sales and earnings forecasts. The labour market outlook and prospects for wage developments also deteriorated markedly. Such an environment poses particular problems for trade and retail groups as the public mood and public expectations directly impact consumption. After recovering slightly towards the end of the year, the DAX closed the year at 4,810.20 points – leaving a negative yearly balance of 40.4 percent, the 2nd-highest annual decline in its history.

METRO AG’s ordinary share initially outperformed in 2008 before being pulled into the same downward spiral as the DAX. During the year, the share price fell by 50.3 percent, ending 2008 at €28.57. The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx Retail dropped by 41.1 percent during the same period. Due to its higher proportion of nonfood business, the Metro share under performed this retail index, which mainly weights pure food retailers. Meanwhile, government bond holders experienced a positive development. The German bond index REX, a representative cross section of the German sovereign bond market with fixed-interest rates and remaining terms of 0.5 to 10.5 years, gained 5.9 percent during the year.

A person who invested €10,000 in Metro shares when they were first listed in 1996 would have held securities worth €13,590 – including dividend reinvestment – by the end of 2008. This amounts to an annual average return of 2.76 percent.

The principal shareholders Haniel, Schmidt- Ruthenbeck and Beisheim are the major shareholders of METRO AG. According to the information available to METRO AG, they hold 65.87 percent of the voting rights in METRO AG. The company’s free float share is held by a multitude of international and national investors, with German investors accounting for the largest single share, followed by British and North American investors.

At the end of December 2008, METRO AG’s market capitalisation stood at €9.3 billion, making it one of Germany’s largest companies and a member of the German DAX blue-chip index. Qualification for index inclusion is determined by free-floatweighted market capitalisation. METRO AG ranked 29th in terms of DAX-relevant market capitalisation and 28th in terms of trading turnover. A year earlier, the company was ranked 28th in terms of market capitalisation and 21st in terms of trading turnover. On an average trading day, 1.6 million ordinary shares of METRO AG were traded compared with 1.7 million a year earlier.

Apart from its DAX inclusion, METRO Group is also represented in other important international indices, including the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx, the respective sector index Dow Jones Euro Stoxx Retail as well as the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI). Moreover, METRO Group is one of the shares listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the DAXglobal Sarasin Sustainability Germany.