Metro sees Asian profit up by end of 2013: Report

Metro aims to make a profit in all its Asian businesses by the end of 2013, Frans Muller, chief executive of the German retailer's Cash & Carry unit, told Handelsblatt newspaper on Tuesday.

Cash & Carry has so far failed to make a profit in any of the Asian countries in which it is represented, the newspaper reported. Muller also told the paper Metro planned to open five new outlets in India in 2011 and up the number of its Chinese outlets to 50 in the first quarter of 2011. In November, the world's No. 4 retailer agreed to sell its Moroccan Cash & Carry business and signalled it may shed more underperforming units to improve margins in the retailing business.