"He sees himself as a long-term investor," Greubel told the Wirtschaftspublizistische Vereinigung Düsseldorf (WPV) on Thursday evening: "We are not talking about the share price." "We are primarily talking about the transformation of the business," Greubel emphasized. Billionaire Kretinsky has stakes in numerous companies in Europe - from the energy sector to media groups and retail - and is currently negotiating an investment in the steel division of Thyssenkrupp. He holds just under 46 percent of Metro.
When asked whether he expected to exit Metro in view of Kretinsky's planned investments, Greubel said: "No". He always talks to Kretinsky personally. He was consistent in his approach and had "never perceived anything disloyal on Kretinsky's part". However, Kretinsky also feels that the restructuring of the metro is not going fast enough. But he is not alone in this: "It's not fast enough for all of us."
Greubel wants to concentrate the once widely ramified Dax group on the wholesale business with numerous sales channels from internet platforms to delivery and is focusing on business with restaurateurs and hoteliers. It is strengthening sales and delivery to customers, removing less attractive products from its range and aiming to significantly increase the proportion of private labels. "We are in the middle of a corporate culture revolution," said Greubel: "We have to get out of this old Dax conglomerate history." "S-Classes, drivers and boardrooms and closed boardrooms - I want to consciously move away from that," he emphasized. However, the transformation to the new business model will take time; in Germany alone it will take two to three years. Metro is like a tanker that in the past "sailed straight ahead like a ghost ship and could hardly be moved off course". This is now changing: "It is moving after all."
Wholesale is a fragmented industry that offers unique growth opportunities, said Greubel. Metro primarily wants to grow organically and not through large takeovers. This is because there are hardly any large takeover targets in the fragmented sector: "The market is too fragmented." He feels comfortable with the current country portfolio. Metro is still not planning to exit Russia, the Group's second-largest foreign market.
(Report by Matthias Inverardi, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).
