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Metro, brief company description
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Ahold, Vendex and Galeries
Lafayette say they will not be Metro's Kaufhof partners
Three leading European retailers have said that they are not engaged in talks about a partnership with Metro. The German multinational wants a foreign company to invest up to 49 per cent in its department store chain. This would ease the way to other European countries for the successful Kaufhof Galleria concept. The two Dutch multinationals Ahold and Vendex as well as France's leading department store company Galeries Lafayette have now reacted to Metro's statement and denied that they would have been involved in any talks. Rumours about a Wal-Mart take-over of Metro or parts of it have surfaced regularly. These have always been refuted by Metro. Particularly the hypermarket chain Real, present in Germany, Poland and Turkey, has been mentioned. Wal-mart is not doing so good in Germany and is said to need additional stores to improve its result. The problem is that new hypermarkets cannot be built and nobody wants to sell existing ones. Kaufhof, Galeries Lafayette and Vendex to create partnership? Metro says no to Wal-Mart and Carrefour, seeks partner for Kaufhof Wal-Mart makes bigger losses in Germany than was expected
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