Duesseldorf, Oct 30 - Metro, Germany's biggest retailer, maintained its 2008 sales and profit forecasts on Thursday but took a cautious view on the future as it braced for the impact of the financial crisis on Europe's biggest economy.
Metro, a bellwether of German economic health, said it still expects earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) before special items to grow 6 to 8 percent this year and sales to rise by more than 6 percent.
Expenses from the restructuring of Metro's Real hypermarkets are not included in the outlook, it said.
But the retailer gave a cautious outlook for the time ahead and said: "It is difficult to ascertain the impact of the global financial crisis on sales, procurement and financing."
"Nevertheless, we intend to further strengthen our position as one of the leading international retailers, also in the future."
Metro shares, which closed at 22 euros on Wednesday were indicated to open 12 percent higher in pre-market trading.
Last week Carrefour, the world's second-largest retailer, confirmed its full-year targets as an improvement in French hypermarkets and growth in Latin America lifted its third-quarter sales.
Metro's third-quarter sales rose 6.7 percent to 16.3 billion euros ($20.78 billion), slightly above an average estimates in a Reuters poll of analysts of 16.1 billion euros.
Sales in eastern Europe "slowed slightly" but were still up 18.1 percent in the third quarter and offset a weaker performance in western Europe, where business was "affected by an increasingly dampening macro economic environment".
Eastern Europe accounted for about 28 percent of Metro's quarterly sales.
Metro's consumer electronics units Media Markt and Saturn were particularly hurt by deteriorating consumer spending as a result of the financial crisis and sales at stores open at least a year fell 3.4 percent in the quarter.
Official data on Tuesday showed the savings rate in Germany hit its highest level in 14 years during the first half of 2008, with 11.3 percent of disposable income being set aside.
Third-quarter group EBIT rose 6.3 percent to 361 million euros, above estimates.
Metro shares have been trading at 5.6 times projected 2009 earnings, at a discount to Carrefour with a multiple of 10.8 and Britain's biggest retailer Tesco at 11.6. The multiple is also below the sector average of the DJ Stoxx European Retail sector index, according to Reuters Estimates.