Metro loss in Q1 2007
Metro International saw its first-quarter operation loss grow to $11.5m from $3.9m in Q1 2007. Sales increased with 10% to $102.5m. CEO Törnberg blamed it partly on the 
seasaon but was also disappointed with the results in Sweden, the US, Hungary, France and Spain. In Chile, Hong Kong, Portugal, and Holland performance was strong according to the company. Swedish problems are caused by heavy competition, underperformance of management and poor results of the real estate magazine Bostad (left). In general the company lost quite a lot management to competitors, although it sees problems with the competitors in Denmark (closure of Dato) and Spain (Qué! for sale) and a good sign for Metro. Dato was called the first casualty of the Danish newspaper war, forgetting he closure of their own afternoon edition in 2006.
Because of the results, share price dropped with 15%. Metro therefore becomes a more attractive takeover subject. According to an analysis in Norwegian business daily DN (see also Kristina Lowe’s weblog), Schibsted might be interested in the company, although my analysis would be that the business culture in both companies is totally different which would make a merger very complicated.