St-Petersburg, Russia; 06 October 2015–Lenta, (LSE, MOEX: LNTA), one of the largest retail chains in Russia, today announced that Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the corporate family rating (CFR) of Lenta to Ba3 from B1, and Lenta’s probability of default rating (PDR) to Ba3-PD from B1-PD. The outlook on the ratings is stable.

Moody’s explained that the decision to upgrade Lenta’s credit rating was driven by a number of key factors including:

• “the company’s proven ability to maintain a robust financial profile and conservative financial policy while still pursuing a bold growth strategy”
• “its successful price-led business model and effective management mean that the company systematically achieves strong operating results and profitability”
• “since 2011, the company has materially increased its scale and improved geographical diversification by demonstrating industry-leading sales growth, including double-digit annual like-for-like sales growth, and at the same time maintained strong profitability”
• “Lenta’s price-led business model further proved its viability under the current challenging operating environment”
• “attractive fundamentals of the Russian food retail market for efficient large players focused on the defensive economy segment, Moody’s expects that Lenta will be able to preserve historically healthy operating results amid the weakening macro-environment” 

Moody’s upgrade follows S&Ps upgrade of Lenta’s credit rating from ‘B+’ to ‘BB-‘ with stable outlook in August 2015 and Fitch rating of ‘BB-‘ with positive outlook issued in June 2015

About Lenta

Lenta is one of the largest retail chains in Russia and the country’s second largest hypermarket chain (in terms of 2014 sales). The Company was founded in 1993 in St. Petersburg. Lenta operates 122 hypermarkets in 63 cities across Russia and 27 supermarkets in Moscow, with a total of approximately 787,807 sq.m of selling space. The average Lenta hypermarket store has selling space of approximately 6,200 sq.m. The Company operates five owned hypermarket distribution centres.

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 30,655 people as of 30 June 2015.

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 TPG Capital and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, both of which are 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
Anna Meleshina,
Public Relations & Government Affairs Director
Tel: +7 812 363 28 53
E-mail: anna.meleshina@lenta.com

Yana Mogileva, PR Manager
Òel:+7 (812) 336 39 97
E-mail: yana.mogileva@lenta.com

Instinctif Partners
International Media:
Mark Walter and Saule Jandossova
Òel:+44 (0)20 7457 2020
E-mail: Lenta@instinctif.com

Primum
Russian Media:
Alexandra Semenova and Nikolay Konchurkov
Òel:+7 926 903 9975
E-mail: Lenta@primum.ru