X5 Retail Regulatory News (FIVE)

11 Sep 2006 07:16

Pyaterochka Holding N.V.11 September 2006 PYATEROCHKA HOLDING N.V. UPGRADES ITS MANAGEMENT TEAM September 11, 2006 Pyaterochka Holding N.V., the largest Russian retailer by sales, incorporatingPyaterochka and Perekrestok chains, today announces important managementappointments. • The Supervisory Board of the Enlarged Group recommended Herve Defforey, one of the most experienced experts in the retail business, to be elected as non-executive member of the Board. Herve Defforey started his career as a marketing manager in Nestle Co. in 1975. From 1977 he worked in Chase Manhattan Bank N.A. which he left in the position of Vice President in 1983. From 1983 to 1990 he held top positions in BMW AG. In 1990 he took up the duties of the Managing Director in Azucarrera EBRO S.A. In 1993-2004 served as Finance Director and General Manager in Carrefour, S.A. From 2001 Mr. Defforey is a Partner in GPR Partners where he also serves as Executive Chairman for Europe. • Carlos Maria Criado Perez Trefault, a well-known international retail professional, was appointed as strategy development consultant to the CEO of Pyaterochka Holding N.V. Carlos is currently the Executive President of Spanish retail chain Dinosol Supermercados (from 2004). Before that he held the positions of Chief Executive Officer of U.K. supermarket chain Safeway plc (1999-2004) and Chief Operating Officer of Wal-Mart International (1998-1999). In 1981-1998 he worked in SHV Makro consecutively as General Manager, Karry, Spain, Country Manager of the Taiwan and Portugal divisions, and member of the Executive Board. We expect that extensive experience of Herve and Carlos will allow us to developthe most effective model for the further development of the Enlarged Group,using the natural advantages of Pyaterochka and Perekrestok merger to themaximum extent, -- said Lev Khasis, Chief Executive Officer of PyaterochkaHolding N.V. - The primary focus of our further activities is the consolidationof the segmented Russian retail market, and we hope that attracting such highlyqualified professionals of international level, who have experience in thedevelopment of largest Western retail chains - market consolidators in Westerncountries - will allow us to successfully accomplish our aggressive expansionplans in the Russian market. • In order to centralise merger and acquisition activities and furtherincrease their efficiency, Pyaterochka Holding N.V. introduced the position ofDirector of Mergers and Acquisitions and Business Development. This post wastaken by Andrey Gusev, previously the Director of Asset Management Control atAlfa Group (from 2001), where he specialised in M&A operations. From 1999 to2001 he worked as a consultant at Bain & Company, and as a manager at Deloitte &Touche's Moscow office from 1995 to 1998. In 2000 he received MBA degree atWharton School, Pennsylvania University. Since 1999 Andrey Gusev has also been apresident of the Professional Association of Russian-speaking Leading BusinessSchools Graduates (CluMBA). • Pyaterochka Holding N.V. introduced new position of CommunicationsDirector in order to centralize external communications of the Enlarged Group,including public, investor and government relations. This post was taken byGennady Frolov, who has over 13 years of expertise in PR, IR and GR, of which 8years in international companies. He started his career as an account managerand new businesses director in The Rowland Company, Moscow (1993 - 1997). In1998-1999 he was the public relations manager at Video International Group.Later he held the positions of TNT Express public relations manager (2000-2001),APK Cherkizovsky public relations director (2001-2003), Istok Group public andgovernment relations director (2003-2005). Before he joined Pyaterochka HoldingN.V he was the deputy general director on public and investor relations atAmtel-Vredestein and Cherkizovo Group for the period of the IPOs of the twocompanies. • In order to centralise control over cash flow and financial riskmanagement, a position of Director of Treasury was created in PyaterochkaHolding N.V. It will be taken by Ivan Larin. His responsibilities will includestrategy and policy of the Enlarged Group financing, cash flow planning andcontrol, financial risk management and insurance activity. Ivan Larin works inthe financial sector since 1996. He previously held the position of director ofrisk management at Renaissance Capital. From 2000 to 2004 he was consecutivelyvice president of Lehman Brothers Inc., Bank of America Securities LLC andBlackRock Inc. From 1998 to 2000 he worked in the derivative sales department atLehman Brothers Inc. During 1996-1998 he was an analyst at Credit Lyonnais Inc. • Due to recent transition of Vitaly Podolsky to the position of Chief Financial Officer of the Enlarged Group, Evgeny Kornilov was appointed Finance Director of Perekrestok chain. Evgeny Kornilov came to Perekrestok from SUN Interbrew, Russian division of InBev, where he held the position of Vice President, Finance, Central and Eastern Europe. From 1992 to 1999 Evgeny Kornilov worked in Pricewaterhouse Coopers in audit and management consulting departments. As commented Lev Khasis, the company currently faces the following primaryobjectives - implementation of the synergy created by the merger of two largestRussian retain chains, and further aggressive market expansion of the EnlargedGroup. In order to deliver on these objectives we are consolidating a number ofmanagement functions in the corporate centre to increase the efficiency of theEnlarged Group in such fields as M&As. Finance and others, at the same timekeeping reasonable margin of flexibility of each individual chain to ensuretheir further uninterrupted development. This management model requires thecreation of an experienced, highly professional top management team. Today wecontinue this process that can be called 'management upgrade'. In the nearfuture we will announce further new appointments in the corporate centre,completing the creation of a new management team in Pyaterochka Holding N.V.. -End- Note to Editors: Pyaterochka Holding N.V. is Russia's largest food retailer in terms of sales.The group has 391 company-managed "Pyaterochka" soft discount stores located inthe Moscow (187), St. Petersburg (185) and Yekaterinburg (19) areas, and 133company-managed "Perekrestok" supermarkets across 14 regions of Central Russiaand Ukraine, including 78 stores in Moscow, as of 30 June 2006. As of 30 June 2006, franchisees operated 479 Pyaterochka branded stores in 20regions of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Perekrestok has 10 convenience storesoperated by franchisees in the Moscow area. Pyaterochka and Perekrestok have merged their operations as of 18 May 2006 tocreate the clear leader in the Russian food retail market. Pyaterochka's 2005 net sales (pre-merger) reached USD 1,359 million, with grossbanner sales in 2005 of over USD 2 billion. Perekrestok net sales reached USD1,015 million in 2005. The Group's pro forma (assuming both chains contribution from 1 January 2006)net sales for the first half of 2006 were US $1,581 million. During 1H 2006, thePyaterochka chain provided US $906 million of net sales, while the Perekrestokchain contributed US $675 million of net sales. Enquiries to: Pyaterochka Holding N.V. Tanja Djurdjevic Investor Relations T: +7 495 724 6414 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange