Company valued at over £3bn steals march on queue of British retailers planning to make same move
The Russian hypermarket chain Lenta has announced plans to float in London with a valuation of over $5bn (£3bn).
The company, in which the US private equity firm TPG and Russia's VTB Capital have the biggest stakes, has jumped a queue of British retailers that are set to follow suit over the next few months.
Lenta is expected to raise at least $1bn as its owners sell part of their holdings in the business via a joint listing in Moscow. The retailer has 77 hypermarkets and 10 supermarkets in 45 Russian cities, and is seeking to double its selling space within three years.
It is not the first Russian retailer to seek a listing in London: its rival X5 launched on the London markets in 2005. That company's shares have had a rocky ride over the last three years amid fears that Russia's market is slowing.
About 15 high street names with a valuation of more than £6bn are expected to seek listings in London this year. McColl's, the convenience store chain, is the only British retailer to have formally announced its plans but Poundland, Appliances Online and Boohoo.com are all thought to be close to firing the starting gun.
At the weekend, it emerged that both DFS, the furniture store, and B&M, the discount retailer chaired by the former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, had hired advisers, suggesting they are moving towards a listing this year.
source Guardian
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