REUTERS
Shares in German retail heavyweight Metro, which owns Saturn electrical stores, have jumped 9% to EUR 26.80 after it revealed plans to split into two companies that will be separately listed on the stock market, The Financial Times reported.
The group's current brands, which also include Metro Cash & Carry, will be divided along two lines: one of the new companies will be a wholesale and food specialist group, while the second will be a consumer electronics business, according to a report.
The separation is expected to complete in the middle of next year.
Metro, which used to also own the well-known department store chain, Galeria Kaufhof, but sold it to Canada's Hudson's Bay last year, said the demerger would allow each business to grow quicker, according to The Financial Times.
The wholesale and food business would be run by Metro's current chief executive, Olaf Koch, while it is proposed that Peter Hass, chief executive of Media-Saturn, takes the helm of the consumer electronics business.