Metro denies report about plans to buy M.video

Write: Joscelin [2011-05-20]

Metro denies report about plans to buy M.video

From: Reuters

German retailer Metro denied a newspaper report last Friday that its consumer electronics business, Media Saturn, is in talks to buy Russian electronics retailer M.video.

Russian daily Kommersant reported, citing unnamed sources close to M.video, the first official estimates of the deal might be known in March. The paper said, citing analysts, that Media Saturn may pay more than $1 billion for the deal.

A spokesman for Metro said: We are denying this report.

Metro, the world s third-largest retailer behind Wal-Mart and Carrefour, had said in January that it plans to raise its investment budget this year to drive growth in Eastern Europe and Asia.

M.video s 2009 sales rose 3.6 percent to 83.3 billion roubles ($2.77 billion), the company reported in January.