Amsterdam, 11 July 2022 – X5 Retail Group N.V. (“X5” or the “Company”, LSE and MOEX ticker: FIVE), a leading Russian food retailer that operates the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Chizhik retail chains, announces the publication of its audited Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2021.
In March 2022, the Company’s external auditor, Ernst & Young Accountants LLP (the Netherlands), suspended its audit services for the Company. As a result of these extraordinary circumstances, X5 was unable to issue audited financial statements for the financial year 2021 within the 180-day period after year end.
On March 16, 2022, the Company released its financial results, and subsequently released and submitted its 2021 Annual Report to the General Meeting of Shareholders on May 19, 2022. The latter included the Company’s unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements, as the Company believed that the audit of its consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021 was completed in all material aspects, and the financial statements gave a true and fair view of the Group’s financial position and performance for 2021. The unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements were approved by the General Meeting of Shareholders on June 30, 2022.
Throughout this time, the Company has been engaged in ongoing efforts to obtain an external auditor’s report on its financial statements. In line with its plan, X5 engaged TSATR Audit Services LLC (formerly Ernst & Young LLC, Russia, which is operating under the B1 brand from July 2022) as an external auditor for its 2021 Consolidated Financial Statements. As a result, on July 11, 2022, the Company issued its audited Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2021, together with the audit report.
The Company will continue its effort to have its statutory Annual Report and Annual Accounts audited by a qualified independent audit firm in the Netherlands for statutory reporting purposes.
The audited consolidated financial statements can be found on the Company’s website.