By Maitane Sardon

Shares in Metro soared after the company said long-standing shareholder Daniel Kretinsky plans to take the company private again, almost six years after a failed initial attempt.

Shares jumped as much as 38% to 5.36 euros in early trade Thursday. They are down 15% over the past 12 months.

Metro said it signed an agreement with its largest shareholder, EP Global Commerce, to delist the company from the stock exchange. EP Global Commerce, a company controlled by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, had already attempted a similar move in 2019 but failed to get the shareholders' backing.

EP Global Commerce will offer shareholders a price of 5.33 euros for each ordinary share, which represents a significant premium to the current stock price, Metro said.

Metro said its other shareholders, which together represent 24.99% of the company's share capital, understand EP Global Commerce's request for the delisting but won't tender shares.

The German wholesaler reported first-quarter sales that topped analysts' expectations. It said sales rose by 7.1% in local currency to 8.57 billion euros ($8.91 billion), driven by a strong performance in all segments and channels. Analysts had forecast sales of 8.44 billion euros for the quarter.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came to 412 million euros, up from 407 million euros in last year's first quarter, Metro said. Adjusted for currency effects, adjusted Ebitda increased by 15 million euros compared to the prior year, driven by growth in the eastern, Russian and western segments, it said.

"We continued our growth momentum despite a challenging market environment, with good sales performance across all segments and channels, which is having a positive impact on our earnings; this is mainly driven by our core target group of gastronomy", Metro Chief Executive Steffen Greubel said.

The company backed its outlook for fiscal 2025.

Write to Maitane Sardon at maitane.sardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 06, 2025 05:16 ET (10:16 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.