One of Russia’s biggest retailers X5 Retail Group has finalised the sale of its Perekrestok supermarket operations in Ukraine, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The sale of the retailer’s Ukraine unit, X5 Group Ukraine, which accounts for less than 0.3% of total revenue is “consistent with the company’s strategy to focus on core retail activities within the Russian Federation,” it said in the statement. It did not disclose the value of the deal, or its buyer.
X5 is the first Russian company to pull out of the country since Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region that followed the overthrow of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.
Reuters have said that the deal had been in the works since October 2013, but the crisis over Crimea may have quickened the pace of talks.
Varus is buying the lease rights to 13 Perekryostok stores in and near Kiev, as well as in-store facilities and stock, Capital quoted Varus’s co-owner Ruslan Shostak as saying.
According to the 2013 financial report, X5 has 12 stores in Ukraine out of a total of 4,544 mostly across Russia.