FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German retailer Metro (DE:B4B) on Friday withdrew its guidance for the financial year 2019/20 due to the expected negative impact of the coronavirus on sales and earnings in the second half of the year.
Restrictions on the movement of people to contain the virus has hurt demand, particularly from clients in the hospitality sector, and impacted Metro's sales since mid-March, it said.
Based on an extrapolation of the current sales trends, Metro said it expects that each additional month of restrictions will result in sales losses of approximately 500 million euros.
Metro said that it cannot provide an outlook for the year, given the uncertainties about when the crisis will be contained.
For the fiscal year 2019/20 Metro had guided for growth of total sales and like-for-like-sales of between 1.5% and 3% and an Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortisation excluding earnings contributions from real estate transactions roughly at the level of the previous financial year.