St-Petersburg, Russia; 20 October, 2016– Lenta Ltd, (LSE, MOEX: LNTA / “Lenta” or the “Company”) one of the largest retail chains in Russia, is pleased to announce the Company’s consolidated sales and operating results for the third quarter ended 30 September 2016.

To view the full press release, please click here.

3Q 2016 Operating Highlights:

• Total sales grew 20.2% in 3Q 2016 to Rub 75.4bn (3Q 2015: Rub 62.8bn);
• Like-for-like (“LFL”)¹ sales growth of 4.3% vs. 3Q 2015;
• LFL traffic growth of 0.1% combined with a 4.2% increase in LFL ticket;
• Eight hypermarkets opened during the third quarter of 2016;
• Total store count reached 197 stores as at 30 September 2016, comprising 155 hypermarkets and 42 supermarkets;
• Total selling space increased to 963,370 sq.m. as at 30 September 2016 (+22.3% vs. 30 September 2015); and
• Number of active loyalty cardholders² increased to 9.8m (+23% y-o-y) with approximately 93% of transactions in the third quarter made using the loyalty card.

9M 2016 Operating Highlights:

• Total sales grew 21.3% in 9M 2016 to Rub 215.5bn (9M 2015: Rub 177.7bn);
• LFL sales growth of 4.9% vs. 9M 2015;
• LFL traffic growth of 1.4% combined with a 3.4% increase in LFL ticket;
• 16 hypermarkets and 10 supermarkets opened during 9M 2016.

Material events in 3Q 2016 and after the reported period:

Lenta has opened one hypermarket in Taganrog in October 2016.

Lenta’s Chief Executive Officer, Jan Dunning commented:

“We are pleased with the results of the third quarter of 2016 – 20.2% sales growth with 4.3% LFL sales growth despite our own high base for comparison of the third quarter of 2015, the rapid fall in food inflation since the beginning of the year, and continuing pressure on customer purchasing power.

In this challenging environment, customers continue to be price sensitive and bargain oriented. Lenta’s low price, value led proposition is well positioned for this. For example, this has led to a record high penetration of promotional sales in the total basket even though Lenta’s overall promotional activity remained stable. We have also noticed further stabilization of purchasing trends with gradual improvement in the average number of articles per basket and average price per article as well as non-food sales growth.

We successfully continued expansion of our hypermarket format with eight stores opened in the third quarter. Since the beginning of the year we have opened 16 hypermarkets of which 11 stores have been opened in big cities with population of more than one million inhabitants.

We are well on track to deliver at least 40 new hypermarkets this year, and expect to beat our ambitious target to double selling space in the three years to December 2016. We have already secured all the sites required to meet our hypermarket opening goals for 2017 and have started working on the 2018 pipeline.”

¹ Lenta’s stores are included in the LFL store base starting 12 months after the end of the month in which they are opened
² Cardholders who made at least 2 purchases at Lenta during the 12 months to 30 September 2016 are considered active

To view the full press release, please click here.

A brief video summary on Lenta’s business and its Big Data initiative can be seen here.

For further information please visit www.lentainvestor.com or contact:

Lenta
Anna Meleshina
Public Relations & Government Affairs Director
Tel: +7 812 363 28 53
E-mail: anna.meleshina@lenta.com

Anastasia Kuznetsova
Corporate Communications Manager
Ňel:+7 (812) 336 39 97
E-mail: a.kuznetsova@lenta.com

David Westover
Senior Director
+44 207 282 2886 desk
+44 7768 897722 mobile
David.westover@citigatedr.co.uk

MarinaZakharova
Director
+44 207 282 1079 desk
+44 7774 256545 mobile
Marina.zakharova@citigatedr.co.uk