43. Segment reporting

The segmentation corresponds to the group’s internal controlling and reporting structures. Operating segments are aggregated to form reporting segments based on the division of the business into individual regions. Due to the different business concepts involved, an additional differentiation was made between the business of METRO Wholesale and the business of Real. The individual regions are Germany, Western Europe (excluding Germany), Russia, Eastern Europe (excluding Russia) and Asia. The non-operational reporting units are aggregated in the Others segment, the regional segmentation is omitted.

METRO Wholesale

The business concept of METRO Wholesale is primarily geared towards business customers. It is active in the self-service wholesale trade with the brands METRO and MAKRO as well as in the food service distribution (FSD) with the METRO delivery service and, among others, with the supply specialists Classic Fine Foods, Pro à Pro and Rungis Express.

Real

Real focuses on the retail business, turning its concept to end consumers. Real is a hypermarket operator in Germany, where it operates both physical stores and an online store. All stores offer a broad food assortment with a large proportion of fresh produce that is complemented by a non-food assortment. Real forms the principal element of the discontinued business segment in the context of the Management Board’s decision to dispose of the hypermarket business and is disclosed in the segment reporting under discontinued operations. Until reclassification of the figures at the end of the financial year, Real will represent a separate operating and reporting segment as internal management with respect to the allocation of in-house resources, and performance measurement by the Chief Operating Decision-Maker (member of the Management Board of METRO AG) is separately applied to Real.

Others

All other business activities do not constitute reportable segments that are subject to change and are summarised under Others. Other business activities include the Hospitality Digital business unit, which bundles the group’s digitalisation initiatives. Other service companies including METRO PROPERTIES, METRO LOGISTICS, METRO-NOM, METRO ADVERTISING, METRO SOURCING and others provide group-wide services in the areas of real estate, logistics, information technology, advertising and procurement.

The key components of segment reporting are as follows:

• External sales represent sales of the operating segments to third parties outside the group.
• Internal sales represent sales between the group’s operating segments. These transactions are settled under normal market conditions.
• Segment EBITDA comprises EBIT before depreciation and reversals of goodwill, impairment losses of property, plant and equipment, other intangible assets and investment properties.
• The earnings contributions from real estate transactions include the EBITDA-effective earnings from the disposal of land and land usage rights and/or buildings as part of a disposal transaction. Earnings from the disposal of dedicated real estate companies or the disposal of shares in such companies capitalised at equity are, as a result of their commercial substance, also included in the earnings contributions from real estate transactions. The earnings have been reduced by cost components incurred in relation to real estate transactions.
• All earnings contributions from real estate transactions are adjusted in the EBITDA excluding earnings contributions from real estate transactions.
• EBIT is the key ratio for segment reporting and describes operating earnings for the period before net financial result and income taxes. Intra-group rental contracts are shown as operating leases in the segments. The rental takes place under normal market conditions. The properties are leased at market terms. In principle, store-related risks and impairment risks related to non-current assets are only shown in the segments where they represent group risks. Similarly, this also applies to deferred assets and liabilities, which are only shown at segment level if this was also required in the consolidated balance sheet.
• Segment investments include additions (including additions to the consolidation groups) to goodwill, other intangible assets and property, plant and equipment and investment properties. Exceptions to this are additions due to the reclassification of assets held for sale as non-current assets.
• The non-current segment assets include non-current assets. They are exclusive of most financial assets, investments accounted for using the equity method, tax items, inventories, trade receivables, receivables due from suppliers, as well as cash and cash equivalents.
• In principle, transfers between segments are made based on the costs incurred from the group’s perspective.

The reconciliation from non-current segment assets to non-current group assets is shown in the following table: For the reporting year, the non-current group assets only include the non-current assets attributable to METRO’s continuing operations. The assets of the hypermarket business to be disposed of, which the segment reporting still includes in the non-current segment assets must therefore be eliminated and become part of the reconciliation account: