St. Petersburg, Russia; 7 November, 2017 – Lenta Ltd, (LSE, MOEX: LNTA / “Lenta” or the “Company”), one of the largest retail chains in Russia, is pleased to announce an agreement has been reached with the Holiday Group to purchase 22 supermarkets in the Siberia region.
Assets
The assets to be acquired consist of 22 owned supermarkets currently operated under the “Holiday Classic”, “Kora” and “Holdy” brands. 11 of the stores are located in Novosibirsk, 7 in Kemerovo and 4 Barnaul. The average selling space per store is around 800 square meters, giving total selling space of approximately 18 thousand square meters. The stores are compatible with Lenta’s supermarket format in terms of size and layout, and the locations are complementary to Lenta’s existing stores.
Lenta’s Chief Executive Officer, Jan Dunning said:
“Lenta is pleased to announce an agreement to acquire 22 supermarkets in Siberia from the Holiday Group. This transaction will significantly strengthen our network in Siberia, giving many more customers the opportunity to shop at a Lenta store close to their homes. The stores all have good urban locations and are complementary to Lenta’s existing network.
Siberia is an important region for Lenta. The company opened its first hypermarket in Novosibirsk in 2006 and its first supermarket in the city earlier this year. We currently operate 36 hypermarkets and 4 supermarkets across Siberia, served by our distribution centre in Novosibirsk.
While Lenta remains primarily focused on organic expansion, we are happy to supplement this by acquiring high quality existing stores when suitable opportunities arise. We have a strong track record of successful integration and look forward to welcoming former Holiday store employees into the Lenta family. The stores will be refurbished and rebranded over the next few months.”
Approvals and integration
All the stores are expected to transfer to Lenta ownership before year end 2017. The transaction does not require any regulatory approvals.
The stores will be closed temporarily for refurbishment and rebranding as Lenta stores, with all works expected to be completed by end March 2018.
Lenta 2017 Guidance
Lenta’s existing guidance of about 50 supermarket openings in 2017 with capital expenditure in the range of RUB 30-35bn remains unchanged.