Listed on the Singapore stock exchange since 1973, Metro Holdings was founded by its chairman Ong Tjoe Kim in 1957, who hailed from Indonesia, at the age of 49. The business started out as a textile store at a two-storey shophouse on 72 High Street, where the Treasury Building now sits. A movie buff, Mr Ong named the store after Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

In 1965, Metro became one of the first retailers to open a department store in Orchard Road at Liat Towers, away from High Street, which was the shopping distirict in Singapore at the time. Initially named Metrotex, it became Metro Orchard when the store moved to the Holiday Inn Shopping Complex at Scotts Road in 1973. By then, the department store retailer had became known for its ubiquitous red M sign, uniformed sales staff and affordable fashion items. At one stage, Metro operated five outlets along Orchard Road, including Far East Plaza and Lucky Plaza.

The Metro Grand store at Lucky Plaza which opened in 1978, was Singapore’s first high-end department store that adopted a brand boutiques concept within a store to cater to the well-heeled and sophisticated. Lucky Plaza was then the new shopping mecca along Orchard and the first modern mall to feature glass-walled bubble lifts. The seventies also saw Metro bringing in luxury European fashion and accessories such as Cartier, Charles Jourdan and Givenchy to more affluent and brand conscious shoppers. In 1974, the group took a stake in the development of a vacant site at Orchard Road, which was to become the premier shopping centre, Ngee Ann City. In 1979, it also co-founded the luxury watch retailer chain, The Hour Glass, which was subsequently sold to its partners in 1987. The group also brought in the US retailer Toys “R” Us to Singapore in 1986.

The mid- to late-1990s saw Metro branching into the leisure and travel businesses --- beginning with the building of a $85 million hotel property in Cairns, Australia before venturing into the regional cruise market with the launch of Sun Cruises in 1997. The latter was wound up in 2000 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. An attempt to bring it US discount store K-mart in 1994 also ended in 1996 with the closure of all three K-mart outlets.

By the mid-90s, Metro had already begun to invest in commercial and retail properties in China and Indonesia. New suburban stores based on a more family-oriented theme selling household items, children's wear and toys, and mid-price fashion lines were also opened at Tampines Century Square in 1996; Metro Woodlands at Causeway Point in 1998; and Metro Sengkang in 2002.

The group’s core businesses today are mainly in property and retail, which are focused on Singapore and key cities in Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Australia. Metro operates a chain of department stores in Singapore and four stores in Jakarta and Bandung, in Indonesia.

The group's property portfolio comprises prime retail and office space in Singapore, Malaysia, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China.

Metro’s newest property, Metro City, Beijing, is the Metro Group’s entry into the retail property sector in Beijing, China. Metro City was completed during the year and came on stream in late March 2007 with a soft-launch of our anchor tenant’s 270,000 square feet Parkson Department store. With the launch of the Metro City retail mall, in excess of 90,000 square metres of leasable space will be spread over six levels. The other tenants will open progressively and another anchor, Walmart, will open its doors in autumn 2007. Over three quarters of this 910,000 square feet mall in East Beijing has been leased.

Other principal activities include those of hotel management in Australia and the manufacturer of watch components. Metro posted net profits of $69 million on a turnover of $214 million in financial 2007. Its 27% stake in Ngee Ann City was eventually parlayed into a real estate investment trust (REIT) and sold to Prime REIT, which was subsequently floated on the Singapore stock exchange in September 2005.