FRANKFURT, Dec 3 (Reuters) - German retail group Metro is working to find suitable small and medium-sized takeover targets, Chief Executive Olaf Koch said on Thursday, as it looks to invest the money raised in recent disposals.
Europe’s fourth-biggest retailer has about 2 billion euros ($2 billion) in cash and other readily available funds from the sale of its Kaufhof department stores and its cash-and-carry business in Vietnam, and has already said it was seeking to use some of that for international acquisitions.
“We are looking continuously,” Koch told Reuters on the margins of a conference, adding that the company was not planning any large acquisitions but small or medium sized companies would be on the agenda.
There were no concrete targets at the moment, he said.
Koch also said it was too early to give a forecast for Christmas sales. Germany’s HDE retail association expects sales over the Christmas period to rise 2 percent this year to about 87 billion euros, the group said last month. ($1 = 0.9263 euros) (Reporting by Jonathan Gould; Editing by Ludwig Burger and David Holmes)
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