General Director of O’KEY Group of Companies Miodrag Borojevich noted. X5 Retail Group will buy supermarkets “Okay What happened in Okay”

If X5 Retail Group buys OKay supermarkets, it can consolidate a quarter of the St. Petersburg food market. But it still won’t become a monopolist.

Alexander Nikolaev/Interpress

The retailer himself announced that the owner of the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel chains was considering the possibility of acquiring O'Key supermarkets. As the company said in a statement dated November 1, an appeal has already been sent to the Federal Antimonopoly Service with a request to approve deal. Further steps will depend on the response of the antimonopoly authorities and negotiations with the counterparty. The decrease in retail turnover recorded by Petrostat can play a cruel joke on retailers.

"O" Key confirmed that, in order to optimize its business, it is considering, among other things, the sale of supermarkets. This will help focus on the development of other formats - hypermarkets and discounters, the retailer says in a message to investors, emphasizing that no decisions have been made yet .

Since both companies are federal players, the decision will be made by the central office, the St. Petersburg OFAS office explained to Fontanka. Everything will depend on the assessment of the market share of both players. Now, according to the trade law, retailers can neither buy nor rent stores if last year they controlled more than 25% of the turnover in the local food market.

X5 Retail Group was already subject to this restriction - after the adoption of the Trade Law in 2010, it was unable to develop in the Northern capital for several years. In June 2016, the OFAS published a study that showed that X5 Retail Group is still the leader, but due to the emergence of new players its share

After the deal, X5 may, if not exceed, then reach the threshold of dominance. "O" Key is the second largest player: its share in total food sales is 12.69%, but this figure includes both supermarkets and hypermarkets. OFAS has not yet calculated the share of supermarkets separately. They can be estimated approximately based on the data "OK" itself.

In a presentation for investors released in October 2017, the retailer reports that all 72 hypermarkets brought it 85% of all revenue (146.9 billion rubles). Thus, the revenue of 22 St. Petersburg stores could be about 45 billion rubles. In 37 supermarkets, OKey earned 10% of revenue, or 17.3 billion rubles, that is, 20 St. Petersburg facilities brought in about 10.3 billion rubles in 2016. Thus, the revenue of one hypermarket is approximately four times higher than that of supermarket. Based on this, it can be assumed that out of the total share of 12.69%, at least 2.4% is accounted for by supermarkets. If all 20 objects are included in the deal, X5’s share will come close to 25. %, if the income of OK and X5 at the end of 2017 grows faster than the market as a whole, and even exceeds it. This is more than likely, since according to the results of nine months of 2017, food sales in St. Petersburg

Having reached 25%, X5 will lose the right to open new points, but will not be considered a monopolist. To do this, it is necessary that the share in food turnover exceeds 35%. Only then will prices and relationships with network suppliers come to the attention of antitrust regulators. Collective dominance (when three networks occupy a share of more than 50%) is also most likely not a threat, since the redistribution of objects will take place within the big three, which, in addition to X5 Retail Group and O"Key, includes Lenta. At the end of 2016, they accounted for 47.45% of all sales. The top five leaders in the St. Petersburg market also include Intertorg (Semya chain, Spar) with a share of 10.34% and Dixy with a share of 7.51%. ranking takes second place, in the Northern capital it is only sixth with a share of 3.99%.

However, the prospect of exceeding the 25% threshold may still raise questions among antitrust regulators. “Usually, if the FAS of Russia approves such large transactions, then an order must be issued for approval, which can set strict restrictions on the number of retail spaces,” commented the OFAS.

Experts and market participants interviewed by Fontanka note that it is difficult to clearly predict the decision of the FAS: the antimonopoly agency may either not approve the deal at all or oblige the closure of excess space in regions where the 25% threshold is exceeded.

X5 Retail Group itself did not comment on Fontanka’s calculations. Experts emphasize that the methods for determining market share used by business and the antimonopoly agency may differ. For example, at the time of the adoption of the Trade Law, the then head of X5 Lev Khasis insisted that not only the official market should be taken into account: real trade volumes can often be several times higher than the calculations of statistical authorities. One of the market participants told Fontanka that contradictions still arise, for example, when calculating the share within a municipality. Thus, antimonopoly agents take into account purchases made by residents of other areas, while chains believe that only local ones should be taken into account.

Lenta refused to comment on the actions of its competitors. Intertorg was unable to respond to the request at the time of publication. According to experts, the deal will benefit all participants in the St. Petersburg market. “By purchasing OKey supermarkets, X5 will be able to load its logistics capacities, which means reduce operating costs and earn more profits,” says Otkritie Broker analyst Timur Nigmatullin. If the FAS orders the company to close part of the space, then these the premises will be able to be claimed by other players, who will thus be able to increase the scale of their business.

According to the expert, such a development of events is likely. “Most likely, the FAS will take the same approach as when deciding on the merger of M.Video and Eldorado in 2016, that is, it will allow the transaction itself, but will force them to sell or close some of the outlets,” he explained. Moreover, the decision will be made separately by region.

X5 Retail Group is going to acquire the supermarkets of the Okay group. The corresponding petition has already been submitted to the antimonopoly service. “Okay,” it’s more logical to concentrate on the development of hypermarkets and discounters, experts say
The Federal Antimonopoly Service has received a request from Kelwin Limited to obtain preliminary consent to acquire a stake in an unnamed company engaged in “retail trade primarily in food products, including beverages and tobacco products.”
Kelvin Limited is part of the structure of the largest retailer in Russia - X5 Retail Group (develops the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel chains), a company representative said earlier: on behalf of this company, X5 Retail Group submitted applications for the purchase of regional chains.
As a source familiar with the situation explained to RBC, we are talking about the intention of X5 Retail Group to acquire the Okay supermarket chain, owned by the group of companies of the same name. At the time of publication, the press services of X5 Retail Group and Okay did not respond to RBC’s request. However, after a request, X5 Retail Group announced on the London Stock Exchange that it had filed a corresponding petition with the FAS. Later, “Okay” made a similar disclosure of information on the stock exchange.
As of October 27, 2017, the “Okay” group included 37 supermarkets and 72 hypermarkets under the “Okay” brand, as well as the “Yes!” discount chain. from 60 stores. At the end of 2016, the group was the seventh food retailer in terms of revenue after X5 Retail Group, Magnit, Dixy, Lenta and Metro Cash & Carry, according to data from RBC Market Research.
The bulk of Okay's revenue comes from hyper- and supermarkets, which form one division. For nine months of this year, the revenue of the two formats amounted to 118.2 billion rubles, discounters “Yes!” - only 7.2 billion rubles. But the business of discounters almost doubled in January-September, while the income of hyper- and supermarkets decreased by 0.9%. Comparable sales of these two formats for nine months decreased by 3.7%, but discounters increased by 62%.
But yes!" does not yet bring operating profit to the group. At the end of the first half of 2017 (latest available data), discounters had negative EBITDA. For hyper- and supermarkets, profitability on this indicator reaches 5.6%.
At the beginning of October, O'Key, in a presentation for investors, specified that in the first half of the year, supermarkets accounted for 10% of the retailer's total revenue. The total retail area of ​​this format is 47.6 thousand square meters. m, which is 8% of the retail space of all formats of the group. The retailer owns 18 thousand square meters. m of supermarket retail space.
For the supermarket segment, this deal will be major; it is comparable to the recent deal to lease out Seventh Continent supermarkets to a number of federal chains, notes INFOLine-Analytics CEO Mikhail Burmistrov. According to his estimates, the cost of O'Key's operating business, which includes 37 supermarkets, whose revenue for the nine months of 2017 amounted to just under 13 billion rubles, could be up to 4 billion rubles, and up to another 4 billion rubles. real estate owned by "OK" may be worth. Depending on the configuration of the transaction, the price of “OK” can vary from 4 billion to 8 billion rubles. (from $68.7 million to $137.3 million at current rates), he believes.
The main owners of Okay are the founders of the group, Dmitry Korzhev and Dmitry Trotsky (each indirectly owns, as of December 31, 2016, 23.49% of the authorized capital), as well as their partner Boris Volchek (28.02%).
The owners of the O'Key retailer plan to sell their stake in the chain, Vedomosti reported in December 2016, citing sources familiar with the negotiation participants. Among the possible buyers with whom negotiations were conducted at that time were Auchan and Lenta. O'Key shareholders expected to earn 110 billion rubles for the company. ($1.8–2 billion), Business Petersburg claimed in January 2017, naming Magnit, X5 Retail Group and Auchan among the contenders.
At the end of the trading day on Tuesday, October 31, the capitalization of OK on the London Stock Exchange was $645.8 million. At the end of the day on Wednesday, November 1, the capitalization of OK increased after the announcement of the deal by 8.3 %, up to $699.6 million.
In March 2017, Miodrag Borojevic was appointed as the new general director of the Okay hyper- and supermarkets business. RBC's source then suggested that discounters could be spun off into a separate business, for the development of which the option of attracting an investor was also not excluded.
Having already announced the sale of supermarkets, O'Key announced that it would focus on the development of hypermarkets and discount stores. For Okay, it is logical to abandon the supermarket business, since it has never been strategic for the group, Burmistrov believes, adding that now the company needs money to open new discounters and renovate hypermarkets (including the implementation of projects to lease out part of the space to the network "Surname").
In the fourth quarter of 2016, X5 Retail Group regained its title as the largest Russian retailer by revenue. Over the nine months of this year, X5's revenue grew by 26.2%, to RUB 933.3 billion. Comparable sales rose 6.1% during the period.
The capitalization of X5 Retail Group on Tuesday, October 31, on the London Stock Exchange reached $11.1 billion; at the end of the day on November 1, it remained unchanged.

For reference: Company name: X5 Retail Group Address: ********** Phones: ********** Faxes: ********** E-Mail: ********** Web: ********** Manager: **********

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On the morning of December 13, 2014, explosions rocked the hills in the Georgian region of Kvemo Kartli, shaking the whole of Georgia. Rich Metals Group (RMG), the only gold producer in Georgia, was preparing to begin open-pit mining and destroyed the adits of the world's oldest gold mine in a matter of seconds. Archaeologists who have studied local adits since 2004 estimate their age at 5,000 years. The indignation of public organizations, which had been fighting for several years to preserve the historical monument, was supported by the Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, who the very next day demanded that the perpetrators be punished. Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili compared what happened to the destruction of the Buddha statue in Afghanistan by the Taliban and said that RMG belongs to the relatives of his political opponent, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who are carrying out the Kremlin’s order. In fact, the owners of the company turned out to be completely different billionaires - co-owners of the O'key hypermarket chain Dmitry Troitsky and Dmitry Korzhev.

If not for the scandal, the businessmen would hardly have appeared in public. Troitsky, as he admitted, in November 2014, in order to reassure the public, reluctantly agreed for the first time in his life to an interview with the media - the Georgian TV channel Imedi. At the same time, his photograph with a signature in Georgian first appeared on the Internet, where, during the preparation of the next ranking of billionaires, a Forbes correspondent saw it, contacted the businessman and began to arrange a meeting. And only a year and a half later, in the Moscow office of O’Key, Troitsky, Korzhev and their partner Boris Volchek got together and agreed to tell Forbes about their business.

The office environment is ascetic - a table, chairs and a board on which you can draw with a marker. Businessmen who are not used to communicating with journalists answer questions laconically. All of them were born, raised and studied in St. Petersburg. Troitsky and Korzhev have been friends since their studies at the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute. Troitsky’s father was the captain of the research ships “Cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky” and “Professor Wiese”. Friends have known Volchek, who graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Railway Transport Engineers, since the mid-1990s, and in the business that later became the O’Key network since 2000.

In the 1990s, Volchek had a Grazhdansky supermarket in St. Petersburg and a couple of plots of land suitable for the construction of hypermarkets. Troitsky and Korzhev and their partners also had a 3-hectare plot of land, which they bought from businessmen Shabtai Kalmanovich and Vladimir Kekhman for $600,000. The first O’key hypermarket was built on this plot, which opened in May 2002.

Volchek came up with an optimistic name. “We were advised that the name should be a little Western, but at the same time friendly. At some point it dawned on me. Everyone liked it, it seemed laconic,” the businessman recalls. Scandinavian hypermarkets became the model for the first O'Key stores. The consultant was Estonian specialist Heigo Kera, who had experience working in these networks.

At that time, there were four large stores of the Lenta chain in St. Petersburg, but O’Key was different, more civilized. “They took the classic Western European format as a basis, and we had a hard discounter with large halls, concrete floors, huge racks and pallets between them,” explains Lenta founder Oleg Zherebtsov. “The market was empty then. We literally taught customers how to use a store with a huge selection. Warm, bright, parking nearby. We had friendly security who recommended taking purchases on a cart directly to the car,” recalls Volchek. “People were a little wild back then, but consumers quickly accepted and appreciated our format.” The concept took off, the partners got down to business with enthusiasm and within five years opened stores not only in St. Petersburg, but also in Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Tolyatti and other regions.

In 2009, the first O’key hypermarket opened in Moscow. At this time, the company was led by Patrick Longuet, who worked at Auchan for 27 years. In the crisis year of 2009, the network became the leader in revenue growth (by 32.7%, to 67.9 billion rubles; in 2005, revenue was almost seven times lower), surpassed Lenta in sales and took third place in the list of largest Russian retailers.

In November 2010, the company successfully completed an IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Investors valued O'Key at $3 billion, the co-owners received $420 million from the sale of shares, of which $167 million went to develop the company and pay off debts. Troitsky and Volchek took part in the road show. They bravely answered questions from representatives of Western foundations for hours. According to Troitsky, breakfasts with investors were especially painful. Then he visited America for the first time: he spent one day in New York and one in Boston. The company became public, but its shareholders were not caught on camera even then - on the day the shares were placed on the LSE, only the management team led by Longe could be seen. And yet it was their finest hour: thanks to the IPO, Troitsky and Korzhev became billionaires and in 2011 they appeared on the Forbes list.

Today, the largest private shareholder of O'Key is Volchek, he indirectly owns 28% of the company's shares. 51% belongs to the Cypriot Nisemax Co Limited, whose shares are divided between Troitsky, Korzhev and their student friend Andrei Semenov: Troitsky and Korzhev each own 23.5% of the shares of O’Key, and Semenov - about 4%.

Despite their parity, Troitsky and Korzhev, unlike many Russian entrepreneurs, do not quarrel and do not divide assets. “In terms of personal qualities, it seems to me that we complement each other well. I was lucky with my partners - normal, adequate, decent people. We had a lot of difficult issues in our business, but everyone was smart enough to maintain good relationships for the sake of a common cause,” says Volchek. And yet, the current shareholders of O’Key parted ways with one of the first equal partners.

Partner from Tallinn

One evening in August 2016, one of Estonia’s richest men, Hillar Teder, was relaxing after a hot day in a restaurant near the Moscow River. He admired the Russian capital while drinking wine with his wife and friends. The two Dmitrievs, Troitsky and Korzhev, with whom Teder had created a joint business since the early 1990s, were not at this dinner. “Somehow life turned out so that we were together for more than 20 years, and now we haven’t seen each other for many years,” the businessman says without emotion. According to him, no conflicts arose between the partners.

The founders of OK owe their fortunes largely to Teder.

Troitsky met an Estonian when he arrived in Tallinn in 1991. Teder, who worked in one of the Estonian cooperatives, had connections at the plant, which received a large batch of Lada cars through barter in exchange for seat belts. Re-exported “eights” and “nines” were sold in Russia at that time faster than Vana Tallinn liqueur in local bars. Business took off immediately.

In 1993, the partners created the Mega-Auto company in St. Petersburg, which in a couple of years opened three auto centers for the sale and service of cars from the Volzhsky Automobile Plant. Teder had such good connections that cars soon began to be sold in Russia even without payment - under his guarantee. In 1994, the partners privatized the former Soviet Lada auto center in Tallinn; in 1997, the auto business in Russia grew to a Hyundai dealership, and in 1998 to an Audi dealership. Connections with Estonia provided access to cheap money. As Teder says, getting loans from Estonian and then from the Swedish banks that replaced them was much easier and more profitable than from Russian ones. “We took out loans for two and four million dollars,” he recalls.

The matter was not limited to cars. One day, while inspecting the pavilion at a food exhibition in Tallinn, Troitsky, Korzhev and Teder noticed the stand of an Estonian juice manufacturer. We inquired about the capacity of the enterprise, prices and immediately ordered 20 tons of juices for delivery to Russia. Everything went well. But 40 tons of juice from the second batch spoiled due to a refrigerator breakdown on the way. This prompted the idea of ​​creating our own production in Russia.

We leased equipment from Tetra Pak, rented premises in St. Petersburg, and in 1995 launched the Multon juice production plant. The financial crisis of 1998 swept foreign competitors out of the market; Tetra Pak, interested in maintaining local juice production, helped in difficult situations. In 1999, Multon produced 26 million liters of juice per year, five years later, after the opening of new lines and another plant in the Moscow region, almost 200 million liters (Nico, Rich, Dobry brands). Entrepreneurs started retailing in parallel with the juice business. According to Teder, one day they saw a crowd at the entrance to the supermarket, which opened in the largest shopping and entertainment center in Tallinn, Rocca al Mare, which they built in 1998: “People stood in line for two hours. Wow, we thought, what an interesting business!” Then the plot was purchased from Kalmanovich and Kekhman, on which “they began to slowly build.”

In 2005, the juice business of Troitsky, Korzhev and Teder was bought out by Coca-Cola, paying $501 million. “Everything that could be achieved in the juice market, Multon has achieved,” said the company’s managing director Alexander Kritsky after the deal. - It makes no sense for our ambitious shareholders to invest further in this market. They need big projects, and there are a lot of fast-growing and more capacious markets, such as retail and food. In 2006, the partners sold the Ochakovsky dairy plant to Wimm-Bill-Dann for $64 million, which they bought in 2002 for much less money. Funds from the sale of juice and dairy projects were directed to retail. Before the sale of Multon and Ochakovsky, the O’Key group owned only six hypermarkets in St. Petersburg; after a couple of years there were already 16.

At that time, the shares of the four partners were divided almost equally - Volchek owned 25% of the shares of O'Key, Korzhev, Troitsky and Teder - 23.3% each, Semenov had 5%. In 2008, O'Key already had 37 stores. Inspired by their success in Russia, the founders started thinking about projects abroad. We looked closely at Belarus, Kazakhstan and even China, but settled on Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia.

Non-gold veins

By 2007, the entrepreneurs agreed to open the O’Key retail chain in Ukraine, and in Armenia they had to start a completely new business - mining. The idea belonged to Troitsky, he convinced the partners to start developing the Armanis gold-polymetallic and Dastakert copper-molybdenum deposits. Troitsky was inspired, Korzhev, as always, was calm, and the Estonian partner did not hide his dissatisfaction. “I liked nature, but not everything else,” says Teder. “We knew how to build hypermarkets and shopping centers, we knew how to trade, that’s what we had to do.” But Teder failed to convince Troitsky. As a result, Troitsky and Korzhev began mining copper and gold in Armenia on their own. “I wanted to move to another industry, to move away from the consumer market to a more complex one,” explains Troitsky.

Their Global Metals group includes two companies - Sagamar and Molybdeni Ashkhar, both of which are in poor condition seven years after the start of the project. Sagamar's revenue for 2015, according to reporting, amounted to less than $5 million (in 2014 - $8.8 million), and accumulated losses amounted to $51.9 million. Molybdeni Ashkhar's revenue in 2015 was slightly more than $2,000 , a company with assets of $6 million had a negative capital of $2 million. In essence, projects were frozen. At the same time, the partners invested a gigantic sum of $200 million in Armenian mining projects for this country. What went wrong?

According to Global Metals CEO Karen Ghazaryan, the fall in world prices for non-ferrous metals, “very limited reserves and low metal content in the ore” were to blame. “When we acquired the license for the Dastakert deposit, the price for molybdenum reached $60,000–70,000 per ton, and now it’s only $10,000,” he said in the spring of 2016 in an interview with Delovoy Express. Korzhev and Troitsky do not comment on their projects in Armenia. “At one time I almost bought some nickel deposit, oil fields in Kazakhstan,” recalls Dmitry Kostygin, chairman of the board of directors of Yulmart, former co-owner of Lenta. - When there are opportunities to invest, different fantasies appear, the sooner you get rid of them, the better. At first everything seems easy, but then it turns out that everything is not simple.”

Teder’s idea to develop business in Ukraine also turned out to be unsuccessful. In 2007–2008, four stores were opened - in Kyiv, Krivoy Rog, Zaporozhye and Kharkov. Already in June 2009, all stores were closed, suppliers did not even have time to pick up their goods. A year later, bankruptcy began, which ended with a settlement in 2015. Three hundred suppliers received 5% of the total debt - 7.5 million hryvnia for all. “The Ukrainian market turned out to be not as rich as we thought,” says Teder. “There was not enough money or management for Ukraine, since at that time our Moscow market was actively developing.” According to him, $200 million was invested in Ukraine; the end of the Ukrainian campaign was the sale of Auchan stores “at the price of racks.”

But this was already Teder’s personal matter. The Russian-Estonian partnership has split in Ukraine.

Teder received Ukrainian and Estonian real estate (several shopping centers), Troitsky and Korzhev received part of Teder’s share in O’Key and mining projects that Troitsky could not part with.

In June 2012, he and Korzhev acquired the Georgian companies Quartzite (gold mining) and Madneuli (copper mining and export) from entrepreneur Siman Povarenkin (Acmero Capital) for $120 million. After the purchase, the names were changed to RMG Gold and RMG Copper, the companies were united into the Rich Metals Group holding, today it is the only producer and exporter of gold in Georgia. In the fall of 2013, workers went on strike at enterprises, demanding improved working conditions and higher wages. A compromise was found only in March 2014. In 2013, the company's revenue from gold exports decreased by 16.7%, to $73.3 million, in 2014 it amounted to $39.3 million.

Another almost insoluble problem was the archaeological excavations at the deposit in the Sakdrisi region in Kvemo Kartli. Tools, stone hammers and other artifacts were found, proving that gold was mined in this place in the 4th–3rd millennia BC. e. “This is the most ancient monument of gold mining using the mining method,” explains senior researcher at the National Museum of Georgia, archaeologist Georgiy Mindiashvili. “The depth of one of the adits leading to the gold veins was 37 m.” The joint work of Georgian and German archaeologists was financed by the Volkswagen Foundation.

It seemed that the expedition’s conclusions about the inadmissibility of mining gold in this place by quarrying could not be disputed. However, in the spring of 2014, the Georgian Ministry of Culture deprived the ancient mines of the status of a monument of historical and cultural heritage. They were blown up in December. "It was terrible. Such a sad story, it seemed to me, was only possible in films,” recalls the head of the expedition from the Georgian side, Irina Gombashidze. According to her, the archaeologists were on good terms with the previous owners of the deposit, but the new ones did not cooperate. A compromise was nevertheless found: the few finds collected over ten years will soon become part of the exhibition of a new state museum in the Bolnisi region, built with funds from RMG.

According to Troitsky, at the time of the purchase the Georgian company was in a difficult situation. The main problem was the depletion of the resource base, but over four years of exploration work, RMG discovered several new fields. “We were developing all aspects of this business, which no one had done before. Now we can look to the future with optimism,” he says.

At the end of 2015, the company’s revenue from gold exports increased by 58%, to $62.1 million, the revenue of the division engaged in copper ore mining and concentrate production - by 9.1%, to $270.6 million. Georgia’s share in the total export volume revenue from the sale of gold and copper increased by 5 percentage points, to 15.1%,

“The asset is promising,” says Denis Rusinovich, investment director at Acmero Capital, who sold the deposits to Troitsky. - We did not plan to sell it, the initiative came from buyers. They offered good money - we sold. The topic of monuments in mining comes up all the time, and these issues can be resolved.”

Investors in oblivion

Does Teder regret dividing the business with his partners and losing the OK shares? He says that he is now doing what he loves and knows how to do - build and manage real estate. Since the IPO, the price of O'Key shares has fallen more than five times; the company's capitalization is $560 million. And its owners are again rolling up their sleeves. In 2015, the company was headed by the same Heigo Kera who stood at its origins. In September 2015, the group opened its first discount store called “Yes!” Now there are already 50 of them, and in total the O’Key group has 159 stores. The new direction was headed by Armin Berger, who worked as managing director of the large German discounter chain Aldi. In 2012, he joined the board of directors of the Fresh Market company, which was created within the O’Key holding specifically for the development of the Yes! network. Nevertheless, for now, O'Key looks worse than its competitors: P/S is 0.2 against the industry average of 0.5 (leader Magnit has this multiple of 1), EV/EBITDA is 6.2 against the industry average 7.6 (Magnit has 11).

Why is capitalization not growing? Building a discounter chain requires large investments, and investors perceive these investments as unconventional for a hypermarket chain and, according to Volchek, “do not yet believe in this startup.” “Apparently, we are not paying enough attention to this issue. We are silent, we do not conduct active PR campaigns, and therefore we live with the fact that the company’s value on the stock exchange does not in any way reflect its real value,” says Volchek. “The company generates about $190–200 million in cash, and at the same time its value on the stock exchange is $500 million. This is ridiculous.” Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of the information and analytical agency INFOLine-Analytics, said that to develop a three-year strategy, the company invited Anton Farlenkov, head of the Goldman Sachs analytical department in the region of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, which became an important positive indicator for investors. At the end of 2016, the “OK” strategy may be presented. “Investors are asking us for a strategy, we have prepared it, but we want to polish it thoroughly,” says Volchek. In the last six months, he himself has increased his “OK” package from 25% to 28%.

", one of the largest grocery retailers on the Russian market (revenue in the first half of the year - 82.4 billion rubles), are considering the possibility of selling their own share in the Internet, the online publication reports. Auchan and Lenta are candidates for the purchase of the chain of stores. . At the same time, one of the co-owners of Lenta said that the company actually plans to acquire a large retailer, but did not specify its name. Among the likely contenders are Auchan, Lenta and Magnit.

The main shareholders of O'Key are Dmitry Korzhev, Dmitry Troitsky and Boris Volchek. At the very beginning of December 2016, Forbes magazine wrote that Korzhev and Troitsky own the Georgian gold mining company Rich Metal Group. Earlier in 2015, O'Key sold to Lente three unfinished hypermarkets and three plots of land. The indicators of the network itself have been stagnating for several years, the publication recalls. The top management has changed, the owners have become more actively involved in business management. In the fall, there was talk about possible plans to locate the Leroy Merlin hypermarket on Okey squares. However, Lenta and Auchan could get the greatest synergy from the deal. Then the company explained this with a desire to focus on its main cities and regions. All of them, according to Mikhail Burmistrov from Infoline Analytics, can receive improved business efficiency as a result of the purchase. According to the latest information, the OK company is worth $597.3 million on the English stock exchange. He added that OK is closer to the Lenta format, but they may be threatened by restrictions from the FAS in the St. Petersburg market. However, Lenta and Auchan can get the biggest profit from the merger, Burmistrov noted.

In addition, the hypermarket market is close to saturation, Renaissance Capital experts calculated in mid-September. After the sale of Okay, the former owners plan to invest in the implementation of a new commercial project. In the long-ago year of 2002, she opened her first supermarket in the northern capital, and in 2009 - in Moscow. To date, more than 40 stores have been opened within the network.

Let us remind you that OKey is the 7th largest retailer in the Russian Federation by revenue.

In the fall, Lenta bought K-ruoka hypermarkets from the Finnish company Kesko. Currently, Lenta is the largest hypermarket chain in the Russian Federation. One of the interlocutors named the largest Russian retailer, Magnit, as a likely client. As Burmistrov informed, in the event of the purchase of Okey, Lenta will need to close or sell some of the hypermarkets, but only in St. Petersburg. In other regions of the Russian Federation, the total share of the 2 networks does not exceed 25%, notes the head of the INFOline- agency Analytics" Mikhail Burmistrov.

X5 Retail Group is going to acquire the supermarkets of the Okey group. The corresponding petition has already been submitted to the antimonopoly service. It is more logical for Okey to concentrate on the development of hypermarkets and discounters, experts say

Photo: Svetlana Kholyavchuk / Interpress / TASS

The Federal Antimonopoly Service received a request from Kelwin Limited to obtain preliminary consent to acquire a stake in an unnamed company engaged in “retail trade primarily in food products, including beverages and tobacco products.”

Kelvin Limited is part of the structure of the largest retailer in Russia - X5 Retail Group (develops the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel chains), a company representative said earlier: on behalf of this company, X5 Retail Group submitted applications for the purchase of regional chains.

As a source familiar with the situation explained to RBC, this is about X5 Retail Group's intention to acquire the O'Key supermarket chain, owned by the group of companies of the same name. At the time of publication, the press services of X5 Retail Group and O'Key did not respond to RBC's request answered. However, after a request, X5 Retail Group announced on the London Stock Exchange that it had filed a corresponding petition with the FAS. Later, “OK” made a similar disclosure of information on the stock exchange.

As of October 27, 2017, the Okey group included 37 supermarkets and 72 hypermarkets under the Okey brand, as well as the Da! from 60 stores. At the end of 2016, the group was the seventh food retailer in terms of revenue after X5 Retail Group, Magnit, Dixy, Lenta and Metro Cash & Carry, according to RBC Market Research data.

The bulk of OK's revenue is provided by hyper- and supermarkets, which form one division. For the nine months of this year, the revenue of the two formats amounted to 118.2 billion rubles, discounters "Yes!" - only 7.2 billion rubles. But the business of discounters almost doubled in January-September, and the income of hypermarkets and supermarkets decreased by 0.9%. Comparable sales of these two formats for nine months decreased by 3.7%, but discounters increased by 62%.

But yes!" does not yet bring operating profit to the group. At the end of the first half of 2017 (latest available data), discounters had negative EBITDA. For hyper- and supermarkets, profitability on this indicator reaches 5.6%.

At the beginning of October, O’Key, in a presentation for investors, specified that based on the results of the first half of the year, supermarkets accounted for 10% of the retailer’s total revenue. The total retail area of ​​this format is 47.6 thousand square meters. m, which is 8% of the retail space of all formats of the group. The retailer owns 18 thousand square meters. m of supermarket retail space.

For the supermarket segment, this deal will be major; it is comparable to the recent deal to lease out Seventh Continent supermarkets to a number of federal chains, notes INFOLine-Analytics CEO Mikhail Burmistrov. According to his estimates, the value of O’Key’s operating business, which includes 37 supermarkets, whose revenue for the nine months of 2017 amounted to just under 13 billion rubles, could be up to 4 billion rubles, and up to another 4 billion rubles. real estate owned by “OK” may cost. Depending on the configuration of the transaction, the price of “OK” can vary from 4 billion to 8 billion rubles. (from $68.7 million to $137.3 million at current rates), he believes.

The main owners of Okey are the founders of the group, Dmitry Korzhev and Dmitry Trotsky (each indirectly owns, as of December 31, 2016, 23.49% of the authorized capital), as well as their partner Boris Volchek (28.02%).

The owners of the O'Key retailer plan to sell their stake in the chain, Vedomosti reported in December 2016, citing sources familiar with the negotiation participants. Among the possible buyers with whom negotiations were conducted at that time were Auchan and Lenta. O'Key shareholders expected to earn 110 billion rubles for the company. ($1.8-2 billion), Delovoy Peterburg claimed in January 2017, naming Magnit, X5 Retail Group and Auchan among the contenders.

At the end of the trading day on Tuesday, October 31, the capitalization of OK on the London Stock Exchange was $645.8 million. At the end of the day on Wednesday, November 1, the capitalization of OK increased after the announcement of the transaction by 8.3 %, up to $699.6 million.

In March 2017, Miodrag Boroevich was appointed as the new general director of the O'Key hyper- and supermarkets department. RBC's source then stated that discounters could be spun off into a separate business, for the development of which the option of attracting an investor is also not excluded.

Having already announced the sale of supermarkets, O'Key announced that it would focus on the development of hypermarkets and discount stores. It is logical for OK to abandon the supermarket business, since it has never been strategic for the group, Burmistrov believes, adding that now the company needs money to open new discounters and renovate hypermarkets (including the implementation of projects to rent out part of the space in rental of the "Family" network).

In the fourth quarter of 2016, X5 Retail Group regained its title as the largest Russian retailer by revenue. Over the nine months of this year, X5's revenue grew by 26.2%, to RUB 933.3 billion. Comparable sales rose 6.1% during the period.

The capitalization of X5 Retail Group on Tuesday, October 31, on the London Stock Exchange reached $11.1 billion; at the end of the day on November 1, it remained unchanged.

 

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