Russian retailer Lenta launches $200 mln share sale
(Fixes typographical error in seventh paragraph)
MOSCOW, March 23 (Reuters) - Russian budget hypermarket chain Lenta said on Monday it had launched a secondary share offering and planned to raise about $200 million to accelerate new store openings.
Lenta has had discussions with potential anchor investors, which may result in one or more of them acquiring a substantial portion of the placing, it said in a statement.
"The proceeds of the capital increase will strengthen our balance sheet and give us the additional financial flexibility to accelerate our store opening programme in 2015 and beyond," Chief Executive Jan Dunning said.
"With this further acceleration in new store openings we expect to comfortably exceed our target of doubling net selling space over the three years to December 2016," he added.
Lenta has said its pace of expansion could slow this year because of increased cost of debt after the central bank increased its key interest rate in an attempt to halt a slide in the rouble.
The share sale comes weeks after the owner of Russia's biggest food retailer Magnit sold 1 percent of the company's shares in a deal that signalled that there is enough investor appetite for fast-growing food retail stocks despite an economic downturn.
Russian companies are grappling with a weak economy and rising inflation after Western sanctions against Moscow over its role in the Ukraine crisis, along with a plunge in the value of the rouble, but analysts expect budget retailers such as Lenta to gain market share as price-conscious shoppers flock to low-price stores.
Lenta said the proceeds from the share sales would allow it to open at least 25 hypermarkets this year, having previously indicated plans for 20-25.
Its planned capital expenditure will increase by about 5 billion roubles ($85 million) to around 30 billion roubles, while full-year sales growth guidance of 34-38 percent remained intact.
The accelerated bookbuilding process will be launched immediately, Lenta said, adding that Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and VTB Capital are acting as joint global coordinators and bookrunners. ($1 = 58.8220 roubles) (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by David Goodman)
