Detsky Mir Enters the Kyrgyz Market

Moscow, 23 December 2019 – Detsky Mir PJSC (“Detsky Mir” or “the Company”, MOEX: DSKY), Russia’s largest specialized children’s goods retailer, announces the initiative of entering the Kyrgyz market.    

As part of its geographical expansion strategy, the Company decided to enter the market of Kyrgyzstan. Detsky Mir’s goal is to open the first store in Kyrgyzstan in the next year and become a leader in the mid-term. Positive experience in Belarus and Kazakhstan demonstrates the Company’s ability to successfully develop its business outside of Russia.

Vladimir Chirakhov, PJSC Detsky Mir Chief Executive Officer, said:

“This year we successfully entered the Belarusian market, having already opened 8 Detmir stores in the largest shopping malls of Minsk, Brest, Gomel, Molodechno and Mogilev. The performance of the Belarusian retail chain turned out to be higher than our planned indicators, and we expect to reach EBITDA break-even this year. At the same time, Detsky Mir in Kazakhstan continues to develop rapidly, demonstrating LFL sales growth of over 34%. On the back of these high results, we decided to continue the geographical expansion to the CIS countries. The Kyrgyz market is attractive to us in terms of low level of competition, favourable demographic and economic environment in the country. Thanks to our strong bargaining power, we will be able to offer Kyrgyz customers high-quality products at the most attractive prices.”

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For additional information:

Detsky Mir Group (MOEX: DSKY) is a multi-format retailer and Russia’s largest specialized children’s goods retailer. The Group comprises the Detsky Mir retail chain, and the ELC (Early Learning Centre in Russia) and the ABC retail chains, as well as the Zoozavr pet supplies retail chain. The company operates a network of 710 Detsky Mir stores located in 266 cities in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, as well as 48 ELC, 14 ABC and eight Zoozavr stores as of 30 September 2019. Total selling space was approximately 794,000 square meters.

Detsky Mir Group’s shareholder structure as of the date of this announcement is as follows: PJSC Sistema[1]  – 33.38%, Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) [2] – 9.0%, free-float – 57.62%.

Lear more at www.detmir.ru, corp.detmir.ru, elc-russia.ru.

(1) Sistema PJSFC is a publicly-traded diversified Russian holding company serving over 150 million customers in the sectors of telecommunications, children’s goods retail, paper and packaging, healthcare services, agriculture, high technology, banking, real estate, pharmaceuticals and hospitality.

(2) RCIF, an equity fund established by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and China Investment Corporation (CIC), holds its stake in PJSC Detsky Mir through its funds: FLOETTE HOLDINGS LIMITED and EXARZO HOLDINGS LIMITED.