OREANDA-NEWS. On May 28, 2007 OJSC "Magnit" (the “Company”; RTS: MGNT), Russia’s leading retail chain in terms of number of stores and customers, released its 1Q07 unaudited financial and operating results prepared by the management in accordance with IFRS, reported the press-centre of OJSC "Magnit".

During 1Q07 Magnit opened 37 stores and increased its selling space by 32,8% YoY, from 411 thousand sq. m at the end of 1Q06 to 546 thousand sq. m. at the end of 1Q07.

Net revenue of the Company in ruble terms increased by 48,1% YoY, from 13 873,3 million rubles in 1Q06 to 20 551,4 million rubles in 1Q07. Net revenue increase was due to an increase of selling space and a 15,6% increase in like-for-like sales in ruble terms. Like-for-like sales increase in its turn was driven by traffic inflow (+2,5%) as well as the increase of the average ticket (+12,8%).

Net revenue in USD terms increased by 58,2% YoY, from 493,8 million USD in 1Q06 to 781,2 million USD in 1Q07.

The gross margin improved from 17,5% in 1Q06 to 18,8% in 1Q07 due to the better purchasing terms, the reduction in logistics costs and increase of the share of the Private Label products in the total share of retail revenue.

EBITDA increased from 25,5 million USD in 1Q06 to 36,1 million USD in 1Q07. EBITDA margin in 1Q07 amounted to 4,6%.

In the 1Q07 the Company achieved 16,6 million USD in net income vs. 13,2 million USD in 1Q06.

Alexander Prisyazhnyuk, Company CFO, provided the following comments: “All the 1Q07 numbers are within the planned results for the year 2007. On the whole, the Company is content with its operation in the above period”.