OREANDA-NEWS. On 03 June 2008 X5 Retail Group N.V., Russia's largest food retailer in terms of sales, published its unaudited IFRS results for the quarter ended 31 March

2008 based on management accounts.

Q1 2008 Highlights

• Net Sales** surged 61% year-on-year to USD 1,786 mln;

• Gross Profit grew by 60% year-on-year to USD 458 mln, Gross Margin totaled 25.7%;

• EBITDA reached USD 161 mln, a year-on-year increase of 50%, resulting in an EBITDA

Margin of 9.0%;

• Operating Profit increased 69% year-on-year to USD 119 mln;

• Net Profit grew by 219% year-on-year to USD 86 mln, partially on the back of high FX gain.

X5 Retail Group N.V. CFO Evgeny Kornilov said:

“After delivering very strong operating performance in the first quarter of the year, we are happy to report healthy financial results for the period in line with management expectations. Q1 gross margin reflects both seasonality and our continuous investment in customer loyalty, while EBITDA margin benefited from higher sales volumes. We continue to focus on further improvement of the efficiency of our business by upgrading systems, optimizing store operations and enhancing logistics capacity”.