Amsterdam, 3 April 2019 – X5 Retail Group N.V. (‘X5’ or the ‘Company’), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE and MOEX ticker: "FIVE"), announces that Moody’s Investors Service ("Moody’s") has upgraded the Company’s corporate family rating to Ba1 from Ba2. The outlook is "Stable".
Moody’s stated that the upgrade reflects X5’s strong sales growth, leading market position and solid and sustainable profitability, despite increasing competition in Russia’s food retail market and challenging consumer environment.
X5 Chief Financial Officer Svetlana Demyashkevich said:
"We are pleased that X5’s strong operational and financial performance and prudent financial policy was positively assessed by Moody’s. We continue to deliver on our strategic priorities, while at the same time maintaining comfortable leverage levels and superior credit quality for our debt investors."