Russian retailer Lenta sees faster sales growth in 2014
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Lenta said it expects full-year 2014 sales to grow in the 34-38 percent range from 31 percent last year, a rare food retailer to predict accelerating growth against the backdrop of a weakening economy.
Lenta raised around $1 billion for shareholders including U.S. private equity firm TPG [TPG.UL] and VTB in a London share sale in February and its stock is currently trading 36 percent higher than the offer price.
The company reported on Tuesday a 39-percent rise in second-quarter sales from a year ago to 46.3 billion roubles (761 million pounds) as it opened more stores and the older ones performed strongly.
It said it planned to open 24 hypermarkets and 15 supermarkets, expected to translate into an increase of at least 30 percent in total net selling space.
"Based on second-quarter results and successful execution of our store opening programme, we expect sales growth in the range 34-38 percent for the full year 2014," Lenta said in a statement.
Its like-for-like sales grew 14.1 percent in the second quarter, year-on-year, after a 13.6-percent increase in the previous quarter.
Russia's biggest food retailer Magnit said earlier it expects the pace of growth to slow to 22-24 for 2014 compared with last year's 29 percent.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Lidia Kelly and Louise Heavens)
