X5 Retail Group N.V. announces RUR 25 Billion Bond Issue
01 Feb 2007
Amsterdam, 1 February 2007 - X5 Retail Group N.V. (LSE ticker: “FIVE”), Russia’s leading grocery retailer announced today the decision of ÎÎÎ «X5 Finance», a subsidiary of X5 Retail Group N.V., to issue RUR 25 billion Callable Bonds due 2014 (the "Bonds") in three tranches. The coupon rates, payable semi-annually, will be defined at the auction on the date of issue.
The net proceeds of the first tranche (RUR 9 billion) planned for March 2007 will be applied towards refinancing of existing debt. The rest of the proceeds will be used both to refinance existing debt and fund its store expansion.
OAO Vneshtorgbank, ZAO “Raiffeisenbank Austria” and ABN AMRO Bank ZAO, are appointed by the Company as the Lead Managers of the “X5 Finance” bond issue.
Vitaliy Podolskiy, Group CFO , commented on this programme: "This bond issue is intended to meet the two main objectives for this year - to improve our debt structure by converting our foreign currency debt into the Ruble zone and extending its maturity while at the same time taking advantage of favorable market conditions to lower our funding costs as well as to provide sufficient funding to support our aggressive organic growth plans in the Russian market” .
Forward looking statements:
This announcement includes statements that are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking statements”. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not only relate to historical or current events. Forward-looking statements often use words such as” anticipate”, “target”, “expect”, “estimate”, “intend”, “expected”, “plan”, “goal” believe”, or other words of similar meaning.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances, a number of which are beyond X5 Retail Group N.V.'s control. As a result, actual future results may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set out in these forward-looking statements.
Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of X5 Retail Group N.V. speak only as at the date of this announcement. Save as required by any applicable laws or regulations, X5 Retail Group N.V. undertakes no obligation publicly to release the results of any revisions to any forward-looking statements in this document that may occur due to any change in its expectations or to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document.
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