METRO share

Shares in the new METRO AG made their trading debut on the Frankfurt and Luxembourg Stock Exchanges on 13 July 2017. Ordinary shares in METRO carry the International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) DE000BFB0019 and the German Securities Identification Number (WKN) BFB001. The METRO ticker symbol is B4B. 46.76% of shares in METRO AG are free-floating.

The first trading day on 13 July 2017 saw the METRO share price closing at €18.05 in the Frankfurt Xetra trading, with the trading volume amounting to around 8.5 million shares.

The share price continued to fluctuate until the end of the financial year and was also influenced by macroeconomic developments and industry sector-specific news. In September, the closing price of ordinary shares in METRO was €17.89. Preference shares ended the financial year at a price of €16.75.

The market capitalisation of METRO AG was €6.5 billion at the end of September 2017. In the time between the initial stock exchange listing and the end of the financial year, a typical trading day at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange saw an average volume of 1.4 million of METRO’s ordinary shares traded. Around 4,500 of the significantly less liquid preference shares were exchanged on each trading day.

On the first day of trading, 13 July 2017, shares in the new METRO AG were included in the MDAX under the name METRO Wholesale & Food Specialist AG for a single day. This was due to the demerger of the former METRO GROUP and the fact that the German Stock Exchange index rules stipulate inclusion in the index for both the old company as well as the demerged company for one day. METRO AG as the demerged company was removed from the index after that one day and may requalify for inclusion at a later time. The MDAX comprises the 50 largest German corporations with the highest trading volumes below the DAX 30. The composition is based on fixed inclusion criteria. In addition to being listed in the so-called Prime Standard and a free-float of more than 10%, inclusion in the index depends on the free-float market capitalisation and the stock exchange turnover. Because the new METRO already met the inclusion criteria at the time of the major review conducted in early September, the METRO share has been included in the MDAX since 18 September 2017. The free-float market capitalisation of METRO AG was €2.9 billion at the end of the financial year. METRO is therefore ranked no. 23 in the MDAX. METRO was ranked no. 13 in the MDAX in terms of stock exchange turnover.

The policies of the global MSCI indices take a different approach. Owing to the fact that the former METRO Wholesale & Food Specialist AG was, based on its market capitalisation, the greater entity resulting from the demerger of the former METRO GROUP, the old METRO AG was replaced by METRO Wholesale & Food Specialist AG and was thus included in the MSCI indices from the first trading day.

The METRO share is also included in the relevant industry sector indices EURO STOXX Retail and STOXX 600 Retail.

18 analysts from respected domestic and international banks have started tracking and evaluating METRO AG shortly after trading in the company’s shares commenced. METRO AG publishes their recommendations and target share prices in the Investor Relations section at www.metroag.de/en/investors. At the end of financial year 2016/17, 61% of analysts issued “buy” recommendations for the METRO share, while 39% ranked them as “hold”. Not a single analyst made a “sell” recommendation. The median value of share price targets was €20.20 at the end of September 2017.