Launches during 2005 into countries such as Russia, Portugal and Ireland helped the company's turnover grow by a sizeable 19%, from $302.5m in 2004 to $359.7m in 2005. Its average daily circulation also grew 19% to 7.6m copies.
Although Metro made an operating profit in 10 out of 17 countries, it experienced a loss and other management difficulties in Spain, which necessitated new management and a restructure costing $4.1m.
This offset the $15.88m gain it made on the sale of its stake in Metro Boston to The New York Times Company in January 2005.
Pelle Tornberg, president and CEO of Metro International, admitted that fourth-quarter sales growth did not meet expectations.
Tornberg said: "2005 featured a combination of some strongly outperforming operations and some that failed to deliver on expectations. We are now, however, in a good position to focus on the clear priority of delivering group profitability in 2006."
The online division launched by the company during 2005, which offers classified advertising and dating sites, made an operating loss of $3.4m.
The number of clients advertising in eight or more Metro countries increased by 76% from 25 to 44.
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