St. Petersburg, Russia; 30 April 2019– Lenta Ltd. (“Lenta” or the “Company”), one of the largest retail chains in Russia, today announces that the Company is aware that LLC ”Severgroup” (“Severgroup”) has completed its acquisition of 166,383,595 Lenta GDRs, representing approximately 34.45% of the issued and outstanding voting shares (excluding treasury shares) in Lenta from the investment vehicle of TPG Group, Luna Inc., as well as the acquisition of 36,076,870 Lenta GDRs representing approximately 7.47% of the issued and outstanding voting shares (excluding treasury shares) in Lenta from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”), in each case, at a price of US$ 3.60 per Lenta GDR.
In connection with the acquisition, the nominees of Luna Inc. and the EBRD serving on the Lenta Board of Directors -- the Chairman of the Board John Oliver, Dmitry Shvets, Steven Hellman and Martin Elling – have all stepped down from the Board. As such, the remaining members of the Board are Michael Lynch Bell, Stephen Johnson and Julia Solovieva (all independent directors) together with the CEO Herman Tinga and the CFO Rud Pedersen.
Stephen Johnson, the senior independent director on the Lenta Board of Directors, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Board. The vacated seats on the Board of Directors will be filled at the next Lenta shareholders’ meeting, provided that, as previously announced, if and when Severgroup holds in aggregate more than 50% of Lenta voting shares (including in the form of GDRs, excluding treasury shares) then the Board of Directors will use its authority to fill these vacated seats and place four nominees of Severgroup on the Board (with their term expiring at the next Lenta shareholders meeting), upon which a new chairman may be elected.
Lenta would like to thank Messrs. Oliver, Shvets, Hellman and Elling for their many important contributions to the Company over the past years and wish them well in their future endeavours.
About Lenta
Lenta is the largest hypermarket chain in Russia and the country’s third largest retail chain. The Company was founded in 1993 in St. Petersburg. Lenta operates 244 hypermarkets in 88 cities across Russia and 132 supermarkets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Siberia, Urals and Central regions, with a total of approximately 1,465,426 sq.m of selling space. The average Lenta hypermarket store has selling space of approximately 5,500 sq.m. The average Lenta supermarket store has selling space of approximately 800 sq.m. The Company operates twelve distribution centers.
The Company’s price-led hypermarket formats are differentiated in terms of their promotion and pricing strategies as well as their local product assortment. The Company employed approximately 45,759 people as of 31 December 20181.
The Company’s management team combines a mix of local knowledge and international expertise coupled with extensive operational experience in Russia. Lenta’s largest shareholders include Severgroup LLC, which is committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance. Lenta is listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Moscow Exchange and trades under the ticker: ‘LNTA’.
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
Mariya Filippova
PR and GR manager
Tel: +7 812 380-61-31 ext.: 1892
E-mail: maria.filippova@lenta.com
Russian Media:
NW Advisors
Anton Karpov & Victoria Afonina
Òel:+7 495 795 06 23
E-mail: lenta@nwadvisors.com
1FTE (full-time equivalent). Average FTE for 1H2018 was 49,643 employees
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