Lenta : Sales and Operating highlights for the first quarter ended 31 March 2018

St-Petersburg, Russia; 19 April, 2018 - 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 first quarter ended 31 March 2018.

Download the full press release.

1Q 2018 Operating Highlights:

• Total sales grew 19.9% in 1Q 2018 to Rub 93.4bn (1Q 2017: Rub 77.9bn);
• Like-for-like ('LFL')¹ sales growth of 6.1% vs. 1Q 2017;
• LFL traffic growth of 0.6% combined with a 5.5% increase in LFL ticket;
• One new hypermarket and nine new supermarkets opened during the first quarter of 2018;
• Total store count reached 338 stores as at 31 March 2018, comprising 232 hypermarkets and 106 supermarkets;
• Total selling space increased to 1,392,973 sq.m as at 31 March 2018 (+19.3% vs. 31 March 2017); and
• Number of active loyalty cardholders² increased to 13.0m (+17% y-o-y) with approximately 96% of transactions in the first quarter made using the loyalty card.

Events in 1Q 2018 and after the reported period:

• • Lenta launched a co-branded loyalty programme with Raiffeisenbank which combines the existing Lenta loyalty programme benefits with the bank's bonus point cashbacks;
• • The Company launched a new private label range ('Bonvida') for professional customers; and
• • Lenta opened its own dedicated vegetable storage in the Ryazan Region with a total area of 6,786 sq.m.

Lenta's Chief Executive Officer, Jan Dunning commented:
'Lenta's sales growth in the first quarter of 2018 came at 20% exceeding selling space growth for the second consecutive quarter. We are especially encouraged by further improvement in like-for-like sales growth to 6.1% driven by even stronger trends in our LFL hypermarkets in both traffic and ticket. Customers reacted positively to changes in our offering, range, marketing and communication by buying more volume and more expensive articles, which led to the strongest trading up since 2013.

The reported quarter was still challenging for the sector - we continued to see pressure from deflation in the quarter, while Lenta managed to overcompensate that by better basket quality. Quarterly results were also affected by worse weather conditions in February in many of the Russian regions. Performance in March was the strongest in the quarter.

We are very pleased with the fast ramp-up of ex-Kesko stores in St.Petersburg still delivering very strong double-digit LFL sales growth during second year of operation and the first trading results of the ex-NASH hypermarkets are running ahead of our original expectations.'

Lenta Store Developments
In the first quarter of 2018, Lenta opened one new hypermarket and the total hypermarket count reached 232 stores across Russia. The Company did not enter any new city during the quarter and remains present in 84 cities across the country.

During the reported period the Company also opened nine new supermarkets. Lenta's supermarket network is now present in five regions (comprising Moscow, St Petersburg, Central, Siberia and Ural regions), with a total of 106 stores. The supermarket format's share in the Company's total selling space rose to 6.5% as at the end of the quarter.

Since the end of the reported quarter, Lenta opened one supermarket in the Moscow region, bringing the total selling space to 1,393,917 sq.m (up 19.3% year-on-year).

Lenta added 10,862 sq.m of net selling space in the reported quarter. Total selling space as at 31 March 2018 increased to 1,392,973 sq.m, up 19.3% year-on-year, with 16.4% growth in the hypermarket format and 85.5% growth in the supermarket format.

Download the full press release.

For further information please visit http://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
Тel:+7 495 795 06 23
E-mail: lenta@nwadvisors.com

International Media:
FTI Consulting
Leonid Fink & Jenny Payne
Тel: +44 7497 783 705
E-mail: Leonid.Fink@fticonsulting.com

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 31 March 2018 are considered active