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Letter to the shareholders

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen (handwriting)

The financial year 2021/22 was a special year for your company. In January 2022, we presented our sCore growth strategy with our targets until 2030. We are making great progress with the implementation. Thanks to our strong business development, we increased our sales and earnings outlook twice this year. We are wrapping up the financial year with record growth. For the coming year, we have again set our sights high: we will continue to invest in growth and capture further market share thanks to our attractive and resilient multichannel business model.

Steffen Greubel – Chairman of the Management Board (Photo)

Growth is our priority. Why? The markets which we are active in are growing structurally and are highly fragmented. This offers an enormous opportunity for us. In this market environment our combination of wholesale stores, delivery service and online marketplace is unique – and above all highly attractive for the customer. The different channels fulfil different customer needs and that pays off: multichannel customers buy manifold more than monochannel customers. This is what we are counting on. With a clear focus on wholesale, intensive expansion of multichannel offers and significant investments in our infrastructure.

We reached many milestones in the past financial year. In the stores, we are forging ahead with the roll-out of an attractive, volume-based pricing policy (‘Buy more, pay less’). We continued to expand the sales team (>800 FTE added) and created delivery space (+13 Out-of-Store locations and +2 new depots). Our online marketplace METRO MARKETS has now also expanded into Italy and in October 2022 also to Portugal and is thus active in 4 countries. Last but not least, we are working towards our climate target by replacing refrigeration systems and switching to natural refrigerants. We have also optimised our portfolio through 3 strategic acquisitions in the delivery and digitalisation area and by divesting the loss-making business in Belgium. We successfully completed the wind-down of Japan and Myanmar, which began in 2020/21. Russia’s war in Ukraine and its impact on the global economy remains a significant challenge for all of us. We have acted prudently and responsibly in this crisis so far as ONE METRO and we will continue to do so.

Achieving the milestones above paid off: we were able to significantly increase our sales and EBITDA outlook in April and July. We ultimately achieved 21.4% sales growth1 and €204 million EBITDA growth11. All channels and all segments contributed to this achievement. We are in the upper half of the outlook range in terms of sales and EBITDA and have gained more market share. This development is also reflected in our sCore KPIs. We use these key figures to measure the implementation of our strategic goals. With the revised remuneration system for the Management Board, we decided that we want to be measured directly by the level of implementation of these goals in the future. In the past financial year, we have achieved quite a lot:

Despite this very good performance, EPS declined to €−0.92. The significant operating profits were reduced by one-time and mainly non-cash postings related to the Russian war in Ukraine and the sale of the Belgian business. In accordance with our dividend policy, no dividend distribution is therefore foreseen. Without these one-time effects, we would have achieved positive EPS in the past financial year and thus significant growth compared to the previous year. This shows that METRO’s core business is resilient and well positioned for the current phase.

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The motto for the coming financial year 2022/23 is ‘Here we go’. And we continue to forge ahead with great strides. The external developments around high inflation and energy price trends pose new challenges for us and our clients. However, the attractiveness of the sector and the advantages of the multichannel business model are not diminished. Quite the contrary. Right now, we are scoring points with reliably attractive prices in the wholesale stores, our own brands and close customer support from the sales force. Our digital solutions help our customers increase productivity and counteract the lack of personnel.

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Investments and market share gains will therefore continue to be at the forefront next year, so that we can achieve our ambitious goals. The Management Board expects a total sales growth of 5% to 10% for financial year 2022/23. However, the operating performance is offset by rising costs – especially due to the temporary drastic increase in energy prices, the cyberattack and expiring income from business disposals. Accordingly, we expect a decline in adjusted EBITDA by €75 million to €225 million. However, this decline comes after an EBITDA increase of over €200 million in the previous year. In conclusion, we continue to expect a good development in line with our medium and long-term ambition.

None of this would be possible without the tireless efforts of our approximately 90,000 employees in 31 countries. We are working on sCore as ONE METRO with a great deal of motivation and commitment. Together, we will move our company forward and achieve the targets we have set for ourselves by 2030. We are doing what we do best – multichannel wholesale. Dear shareholders, we sincerely thank you for your support in achieving these goals.

Yours truly,

Signature Steffen Greubel (handwriting)

Dr Steffen Greubel
Chairman of the Management Board of METRO AG

Availability of goods
This is one of the key figures that METRO uses to measure and check the implementation status of the sCore strategy. The key figure indicates whether an item to be sold to the customer is physically in stock. It is calculated as the aggregate proportion of active items in METRO countries that are in stock at the end of the day relative to the total number of active items for the day (excluding ultra-fresh, tobacco and petrol). An item is considered active if it is expected to be available for sale in the stores at the given time.
Glossary
Digital sales share
This is one of the key figures that METRO uses to measure and check the implementation status of the sCore strategy. It shows the digital sales share in total sales excluding internal service companies. Digital sales include transactions where an order is placed by the customer via a digital medium without interaction with METRO and can be processed automatically.
Glossary
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation)
Profit or loss before financial result, income taxes, depreciation/amortisation/impairment losses/reversals of impairment losses on property, plant and equipment, intangible assets and investment properties. This key figure serves the purpose of comparing companies with accounting systems that follow different accounting rules. The (adjusted) EBITDA indicates EBITDA excluding earnings contributions from real estate transactions and transformation costs.
Glossary
Earnings per share (EPS)
See earnings per share.
Glossary
FSD (Food Service Distribution)
FSD (Food Service Distribution) is the channel that METRO developed in recent years to expand its offer in the B2B sector. In addition to its traditional store-based offering, METRO regularly supplies selected professional customers with food (and, in some cases, non-food) products via its FSD channel. METRO commits to deliver those products based on commercial and service agreements. With the FSD channel, METRO entered into the primary supply channel for professional HoReCa businesses, while tactically extending its reach to Traders customers in selected markets.
Glossary
Own brands
Brand products with an attractive price/performance ratio developed by a retail company and protected by trademark law. The own brand sales share is one of the key figures that METRO uses to measure and verify the implementation status of the sCore strategy. It shows the share of own brand sales in total sales (based on the merchandise management system) excluding the segment Others.
Glossary
PY
Previous year Period of 12 months that is usually cited as a reference for statements in the annual report and refers to the financial year preceding the reporting year.
Glossary
sCore strategy
METRO’s growth strategy, which is aligned to the year 2030. It highlights the group’s exclusive focus on wholesale.
Glossary

1 Exchange rate-adjusted, without Japan and Myanmar, but with Aviludo and Pro a Pro Spain. Belgium incl. up to 31 May 2022.

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