LSRG.L Regulatory News (LSRG)

St. Petersburg, Russia - 21 September 2011 - In the first half of 2011 LSR Group generated RUB 22,964m of revenues and RUB 3,834m of EBITDA

·; Sales revenues amounted to RUB 22,964m

·; EBITDAamounted to RUB 3,834m

·; EBITDA margin was 17%

·; Operating profit amounted to RUB 2,685m

·; Net profit amounted to RUB 706m

In the first half of 2011, 61% of our revenues and 67% of our EBITDA were generated by our Real Estate Development, Construction and Commercial Real Estate division, and the share of our Building Materials, Aggregates and Construction Services division was 39% of the total revenues and 33% of the Group's EBITDA

Alexandr Vakhmistrov, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of LSR Group comments:

Year 2010 saw signs of recovery in the construction market which resulted in the increased sales in all our key segments. First half of 2011 continued the positive trend and we are happy to mention that our sales volume almost reached, and in certain segments exceeded, pre-crisis level. For example, in the segment of elite real estate in St. Petersburg our sales in volume increased almost twice against 1H 2008, which was a period of the highest demand.

In 1H 2011 we signed new contracts for the sale of 118 th m2 of real estate in all segments, up 96% compared to 1H 2010. The total value of contracts for the sale of real estate was approximately RUB 9.6bn, up 83% against 1H 2010.

We consider that real estate sales growth was primarily driven by the deferred demand and development of mortgage lending. As a result of our efforts, currently most of our real estate projects are provided with various mortgage programmes, and the share of our mortgage sales reached the pre-crisis level.

Sales of building materials were gradually increasing throughout 2010 while prices still remained relatively weak. Since the end of 2010 prices on building materials started to grow. In the first six month of 2011 prices on certain our products increased by 5-27%, and even though they have not reached the pre-crisis level. It is important to note that the breakdown of our sales revenue and EBITDA by major business divisions has become more balanced as compared to 1H 2010.

In 2011, we continued to acquire high-quality building materials production assets and land plots for our development business on attractive conditions. In particular in Central Federal District, we have acquired one of the most advanced and modern brick factories in Russia - OJSC Pavlovskaya Keramika and signed a contract to acquire clay and lime-stone deposits which we intend to use as raw materials source for our new cement plant in a medium-term perspective. We also started a new large-scale development project in the Moscow region (town of Domodedovo).

In North-Western Russia we acquired OJSC Obukhovsky SMiK and thus increased our reinforced concrete capacity in St.Petersburg. We also acquired crushed granite producer OOO 436 KNI which made LSR Group No.1 company in Russia by gneiss granite reserves.

I would like to mention that one of our key investment projects is completed: we have finished commissioning and start-up of our new cement plant in the Leningrad region. In September 2011 we launched production of cement, first batches of which are for our internal use. We also continued implementation of another large-scale project - construction of a new brick factory in the Leningrad region. Launch of the new factory will allow us to decrease production costs and improve quality of our products.

We are confident in sustainable development of our company. This year we significantly increased new housing supply in St. Petersburg and in the next 1.5 years we plan to launch sales of approximately 1.2m m2 in all our geographical markets. We also intend to increase sales of our building materials. We will proceed with active development of our business in Moscow and the Moscow region as well as in the Urals region, where we intend to expand our land bank. We plan to announce new acquisitions in the nearest future.

The full version of the press-release is available in pdf-format

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6385O_-2011-9-21.pdf 

Notes to Editors:OJSC LSR Group is a real estate development and building materials company founded in 1993 and operating in a number of complementary market segments. Its core business areas are production of building materials, real estate development and panel construction.LSR Group's main operations are located in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, Moscow and the Moscow region, Yekaterinburg and the Urals region.In 2010, the sales revenues of LSR Group were RUB 49,950 million (IFRS).LSR Group real estate portfolio amounts to 8.4 million m2 with the market value of RUB 104 billion (according to DTZ valuation as of 31 December 2010).LSR Group is a public company, with its GDRs traded on the London Stock Exchange and its ordinary shares traded on MICEX and RTS.

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