The news that Germany's Metro AG is planning to sell its Real hypermarket business has sent the rumour mill into a spin, with one leading analyst suggesting that the time could be right for Amazon to make its entry into Germany's bricks and mortar retail world.
Bruno Montyene of Bernstein Research said that while in many markets, an obvious buyer for a business like Real would emerge, "we don't see a natural industry buyer in Germany.
"The No. 1 retailer in Germany, Edeka, is more of a co-operative style operation, which would make it hard to buy Real. The No. 2 and No. 3 are the hard discounters, Aldi and Lidl, for whom the retail format does not fit.
