Capital structure

Prior to the effective date of the reclassification and demerger of CECONOMY AG on 12 July 2017, METRO AG was not yet a group within the meaning of IFRS 10. Accordingly combined financial statements of the MWFS GROUP were prepared for the IPO prospectus of METRO AG. Equity in the combined financial statements was the residual amount from the combined assets and liabilities of the MWFS GROUP. Following the demerger, METRO became an independent group with METRO AG as the listed parent company. Therefore, the equity in the consolidated financial statements is subdivided according to legal requirements. The subscribed capital and the capital reserve were recognised at the carrying amounts from the annual financial statements of METRO AG as of 30 September 2017. For this purpose, a reclassification was made from the equity item “net assets”, recognised as of 1 October 2016, attributable to the former METRO GROUP of the combined financial statements of the MWFS GROUP. The remaining negative amount of this equity item was reclassified to reserves retained from earnings. It cannot be traced back to a history of loss. In addition, the measurement of an option to sell held by a minority shareholder, which became effective in the demerger, in the amount of €53 million was recognised in reserves retained from earnings as part of the division of net assets in accordance with the legal structure.

The equity ratio stood at 20.3% (30/9/2016: 18.3%).

Net debt increased slightly by €0.1 billion and amounted to €3.1 billion as of 30 September 2017 (30/9/2016: €3.1 billion). This is calculated by netting financial liabilities, including finance leases of €4.7 billion (30/9/2016: €4.7 billion), with cash and cash equivalents according to the balance sheet of €1.6 billion (30/9/2016: €1.6 billion) as well as monetary investments of €5 million (30/9/2016: €90 million). In the reporting year, current financial investments decreased as a result of the reallocation of €85 million into the cashpool of METRO AG.

As of 30 September 2017, non-current liabilities amounted to €4.2 billion (30/9/2016: €5.0 billion). The decline by €0.8 billion was essentially due to lower long-term financial liabilities totalling €3.1 billion (30/9/2016: €3.8 billion) that resulted from the repayment of a bond issuance programme. In addition, provisions for post-employment benefits plans and similar obligations decreased by €89 million to €0.6 billion (30/9/2016: €0.6 billion).

As of 30 September 2017, METRO had current liabilities totalling €8.4 billion (30/9/2016: €8.1 billion). This increase is largely due to a €667 million increase in current financial liabilities to €1.6 billion (30/9/2016: €0.9 billion), resulting from additional liabilities incurred from a commercial paper programme. By contrast, other financial and other liabilities decreased by €0.2 billion to €1.3 billion (30/9/2016: €1.6 billion) This is the result of the previous year, where this item included a liability in connection with the initial liquidity conditions of CECONOMY amounting to €221 million, which was settled in the financial year.

Compared to 30 September 2016, the debt ratio declined by 2.0 percentage points to 79.7%. The share of current liabilities in total liabilities rose to 66.6%, representing a slight increase from 62.1% on 30 September 2016.