Regulator clears X5 Retail to consolidate 100% of Perekrestok-Express
MOSCOW. May 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service has cleared X5 Retail to consolidate a 100% stake in Express Retail, which manages the Perekrestok-Express store chain.
X5 Retail Group B.V. had applied with the FAS to acquired 60% of shares in Cyprus-registered Retail Express Ltd., which owns Express Retail. The acquisition would give X5 a 100% stake in Retail Express Ltd.
It was reported earlier that X5 Retail, which owns 40% interest in Retail Express, signed an agreement on May 5 to acquire an additional 20% of shares for $6 million. It retained an option to purchase the remaining shares by 2013.
Express Retail manages 52 Perekrestok-Express stores in the Moscow region (with about 9,000 square meters of retail floor space) and is developing several franchising projects.
X5 Retail founded Express Retail in 2007. Its partners in the project were a group of private investors, including the chairman of the board of directors of the Jack Pot chain of slot machine parlors German Goglichidze and the owner of a chain of Perekrestok-Mini franchise stores Valery Tarakanov.
X5 Retail Group is Russia's biggest retail chain by sales volume. The company had 1,399 stores at the end of March 2010 with 1.08 million square meters of floor space. The total includes 1,063 Pyaterochka discount stores, 276 Perekrestok supermarkets and 60 Karusel hypermarkets. Revenue in the first quarter of 2010 rose 20% year-on-year to 75.75 billion rubles.