Lenta mulls buying hypermarket chain of rival Magnit - paper

MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - Russian retailer Lenta is considering acquiring the hypermarket chain of Magnit, Russia's largest retailer by number of stores and second largest by revenue, national daily Kommersant reported, citing retail industry sources.

The sources said Magnit is considering shedding all large-format stores, including hypermarkets and supermarkets, and focusing on developing small-format concepts. The company previously announced plans to expand convenience store chains and increasing the number of ultra-small Zaryad ot Magnita stores, which are only up to 100 square meters in size.

The acquisition of Magnit's hypermarkets would be an opportunity for Lenta to expand its presence in different regions without having to invest in opening stores from scratch, one of the paper's sources said.

Lenta, which is actively looking for growth opportunities, including through such acquisitions, is showing great interest in this deal, Infoline-Analitika head Mikhail Burmistrov told the paper.

The retailers declined to comment.

Shares of Lenta rose 5% (to 1548 rubles per share) at the opening of the main trading session on the Moscow Exchange on Friday following media reports about the company's potential acquisition of hypermarkets from the Magnit chain.

Lenta, Russia's largest hypermarket chain, had 263 hypermarkets, 319 supermarkets, 3,106 convenience stores and 1,720 drugstores in more than 650 Russian cities and towns as of March 31, 2025.

Magnit's largest shareholder as of December 31, 2022 was Alexander Vinokurov's Marathon Group with 29.2%. The company has not disclosed more recent information about its shareholder structure.