X5 Q4&FY 2008 Trading Update
20 Jan 2009
Amsterdam, 20 January 2009 - X5 Retail Group N.V., Russia's largest retailer in terms of
revenue (LSE ticker: “FIVE”), announced today its retail sales and operational performance for
the fourth quarter and full year 2008.
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Q4 2008 Highlights |
FY 2008 Highlights |
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• Consolidated net retail sales* grew 52% |
• Consolidated net retail sales* grew 53% |
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year-on-year in RUR terms, 41% in USD |
year-on-year in RUR terms, 57% in USD |
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terms, to USD 2.4 bln; |
terms, to USD 8.3 bln; |
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• Pro-forma net retail* sales grew 31% year- |
• Pro-forma net retail sales* grew 41% year- |
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on-year in RUR terms, 20% in USD terms |
on-year in RUR terms, 45% in USD terms |
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to USD 2.4 bln; |
to USD 8.8 bln; |
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• Q4 discounters’ traffic year-on-year |
• For a second consecutive year, the Group’s |
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growth stepped up to 7% compared to 2% in Q3; |
LFL sales growth exceeded 20%, reaching |
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22% in 2008; |
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• The Group’s LFL sales surged 15% |
• 233 stores (265 thousand sq.m. of selling |
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compared to exceptionally high base of Q4 2007; |
space) added on net basis, including 24 acquired Karusel hypermarkets** (138 thousand sq.m. of selling space); |
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• 74 stores (51 thousand sq.m. of selling |
• Expanded logistics capacity by nearly 50 |
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space) added on net basis. |
thousand sq.m. on net basis. |
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* Net retail sales represent revenue from operations of X5 managed stores excluding VAT. This number differs
from total net sales that also include revenue from franchisees (royalty payments) and other revenue. The
total net sales number will be reported along with the FY 2008 financial results.
Numbers provided in this press-release are preliminary and unaudited.
For convenience, we provide net retail sales for Q4 2007 and 2008 both on consolidated basis (i.e. including
acquired Karusel stores from 1 July 2008 and excluding them in 2007) and pro-forma (i.e. including acquired
Karusel stores for the full year in both 2008 and 2007).
** Including 23 hypermarkets operating at the time of the acquisition and one hypermarket under construction
that was opened in Q3 2008.
Lev Khasis, X5 Retail Group CEO, commented:
“In 2008 X5 further strengthened its leadership in Russian retail, and we delivered on all our
plans for the year. Full year revenue growth exceeded 50% in ruble terms, like-for-like sales
surged 22% and the Company opened 127 thousand square meters of selling space
organically. 2008 was a break-through year for our hypermarket format as we acquired
Karusel, successfully integrated the acquired stores and tripled our hypermarket store count
from 15 to 46.”
He added: “X5’s performance in 2008 proves that if you deliver for your customers, your
customers will deliver for you. By making value proposition our number one priority, we have
consistently won customers and delivered the strongest LFL and sales-per-square-meter results
in the industry, particularly in X5’s home cities – Moscow and St. Petersburg. The power of
our soft discounters in a changing market environment became very evident in all regions as
we drove an exceptional 7% pick-up in traffic growth in the fourth quarter. While in the shortterm
we expect that soft discounter format will continue to outperform, in the longer run, it is
our multi-format strategy and powerful appeal to customers in each of the formats that gives us
confidence in X5’s outstanding prospects.”
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