Metro exits Danish wholesale market

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German retailer Metro said the Danish cash and carry market is saturated and it is too small to compete, so it is selling two stores and closing three others. Metro, which had only five stores in Denmark, said previously the business had not been profitable for several years. "Given the fact that we have not succeeded in extending our market share in Denmark despite intensive efforts, we finally decided to withdraw from the Danish market," Metro's managing director for Denmark, Charles Kay, said in a statement. Two stores in Glostrup and Aarhus will be sold to food service company Euro Cater, safeguarding around 300 jobs, while the remaining three stores in Aalborg, Kolding and Copenhagen will be closed by the end of the year. Metro said it had come to a deal with unions and labor representatives regarding about 400 staff in the stores to be closed. Alongside cash and carries, Metro runs Europe's largest consumer electronics chain Media-Saturn as well as Real hypermarkets and Kaufhof department stores in Germany. Financial details of the sale to Euro Cater were not disclosed. Metro shares were down 1.2 percent at 1023 GMT (0623 EDT), outperforming a 2.6 percent drop in German medium-sized stocks <.MDAXI>. (Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)