OREANDA-NEWS. December 24, 2009. OJSC “Magnit” (the “Company”; RTS, MICEX and LSE: MGNT) is pleased to release its 9M 2009 unaudited operating and financial results prepared in accordance with IFRS.

During 9M 2009 the Company added 399 stores (net) and increased its selling space by 28.4% in comparison to 9M 2008 from 753.6 thousand sq. m. to 967.2 thousand sq. m.

Revenue in rubles increased by 30.6% YoY from 93,332.1 million RUR in 9M 2008 to 121,867.0 million RUR in 9M 2009. The top line growth was due to an increase in selling space as well as to a 7.3% increase of like-for-like sales (excl. VAT). Revenue in dollar terms decreased by 3.3% from USD 3,881.5 million to USD 3,751.9 million due to significant change of USD exchange rate.

Gross margin improved from 21.2% in 9M 2008 to 23.3% in 9M 2009 primarily due to the better purchasing terms as well as to an in-house logistics improvement. Gross profit in rubles increased by 43.4% from 19,769.0 million RUR (USD 822.2 million) to 28,358.5 million RUR (USD 873.1 million).

EBITDA increased by 78.1% from 6,380.2 million RUR (USD 265.3 million) in 9M 2008 to 11,362.5 million RUR (USD 349.8 million) in 9M 2009. 9M 2009 net income increased by 105.1% and amounted to 5,862.0 million RUR (USD 180.5 million) vs. 2,857.9 million RUR (USD 118.9 million) in 9M 2008.

Sergey Galitsky, the Company’s CEO, provided the following comments on the published 9M 2009 results:

“The Company carried out the offering and will invest the proceeds into the business expansion. 2010 CAPEX will be the largest in the Company’s history and will be targeting our traditional directions. Logistics function developments will still remain the priorities through the construction of new distribution centers, increase of the fleet of vehicles and work on efficiency improvement which will provide the Company with the substantial part of the resource for price intervention directed at the increase of
the chain attractiveness”.