OREANDA-NEWS. Lenta, (LSE, MOEX: LNTA) one of the largest retail chains in Russia, announces that it has completed the acquisition of three hypermarkets in Central Russia.

Lenta has completed the transaction announced on 27 October to acquire three Bimart hypermarkets in Central Russia. The transaction was funded by existing cash resources.

Two of the hypermarkets are located in the city of Ivanovo with approximately 6,400 sq.m. of selling space each, the third hypermarket is located in Vladimir and has approximately 9,800 sq.m. of selling space. Both Ivanovo and Vladimir are underpenetrated by modern grocery retail and have large middle-class populations with demographic profiles which match well with Lenta's offering. All three stores will be served by Lenta's Distribution Centre in the Moscow region.

Integration is already underway. The stores will be fully integrated with Lenta, including adoption of Lenta branding, supply chain, central IT systems and HR processes. Employees will benefit from Lenta's extensive training and development programmes.

Lenta's Chief Executive Officer, Jan Dunning said:

"We are very pleased to have completed this transaction which further strengthens our position in the Central region. While Lenta remains primarily focused on its successful organic growth programme, we are occasionally able to complement this through the acquisition of high quality assets such as the Bimart stores.

The stores all have excellent urban strategic locations and are similar to Lenta in terms of their set-up and discounting strategy. We are also delighted to welcome their well trained and effective store management and operational teams into the Lenta family.

Lenta remains on track to open at least 24 hypermarkets and 15 supermarkets in 2014, and we maintain our long-term target to double net selling space over the three years to December 2016."