Distribution of company announcements to the professional platforms, finance portals and syndication of important corporate news to a wide variety of news aggregators and financial news systems.
Metro International (STO:MTROA) Metro International S.A. ("Metro International"), the international newspaper group, today announced that it is discontinuing the activities of its franchise operation Metropolis d.o.o ("Metro Croatia") in Croatia which publishes the free newspaper Metroexpress in Croatia. Metro Croatia is 99% owned by the franchisee, Europapress Holding (EPH). Friday 12 September 2008 was the last day of publication for Metroexpress.
Metroxpress was launched in Zagreb in May 2006 and has grown to become one or the largest free daily papers in Croatia. Despite this, the newspaper's results during the past six months have fallen below expectation and it was recently converted into a weekly publication. Due to the circumstances, a decision has been made to close down Metro Croatia and consequently terminate the Franchise Agreement.
The net EBIT effect of the close down of Metro Croatia in 2008 will be close to nil for Metro International.
For further information please contact: Per Mikael Jensen, CEO and President tel: +44 (0)20 7016 1300 Robert Patterson, Executive vice President tel: +44 (0)20 7016 1300
***
ABOUT METRO INTERNATIONAL AND METRO Metro is the largest international newspaper in the world. Metro is published in over 150 major cities in 21 countries across Europe, North & South America and Asia. Metro has a unique global reach - attracting a young, active, well-educated Metropolitan audience of over 20 million daily readers. Metro's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual rate of 38% since the launch of the first edition in 1995.
Metro International 'A' and 'B' shares are listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange's Nordic List under the symbols MTRO SBD A and MTRO SBD B.
