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Friday, March 29, 2024

Metro Retail weighs three regional acquisitions

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Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. is in talks for the acquisition of two or three regional chains that will enable the company meet the goal of doubling its gross floor area ahead of the 2020 target.    

“Right now we have M&As [mergers and acquisitions]  that are cooking. If these will materialize, we will probably get to our target sooner than 2020,” Metro Retail chief strategist Jonathan Juan Moreno said in a recent interview.

“Right now including stores in operations, stores under construction, sites approved for construction and sites that are about to be approved, we are at 78 percent. We are very close to our 2020 target,” he said.

Moreno said the target acquisitions were regional malls.

Metro Retail is also looking at forming joint venture partnerships to expand its product offerings. The company is particularly interested in venturing into quick service restaurants, hardware and specialty retail stores.

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Metro Retail was one of the participants in the recent business matching fair conducted by Security Bank and MUFG Bank between Filipino and Japanese companies.

Moreno said Metro Retail was interested in sourcing nice, unique and value products from companies based in Japan to expand its offerings.

“The only challenge is Japanese companies’ [products] at times are priced higher. For us, since we are catering mid to mass market, we are very selective with our selection of products to ensure that these would not only add variety to our selection but at the same time give us healthy margins,” Moreno said.

Metro Retail is poised to open five stores this year to end 2018 with 55 stores. Another five stores would open in 2019.

Metro Retail posted a net income of P90 million in the first quarter, down six percent from the same period last year, despite the fire that damaged a department store and supermarket in Ayala Center Cebu.

First-quarter sales also went down by 12.1 percent to P7.02 billion from P7.9 billion recorded in the same quarter in 2017.  Share price of Metro Retail closed at P2.70 on Friday.

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