OREANDA-NEWS. On 31 July 2008 X5 Retail Group N.V., Russia's largest retailer in terms of sales (LSE ticker: “FIVE”), announced that its wholly owned subsidiary X5 Finance LLC has approved a bond prospectus with respect to two tranches of corporate ruble bonds series 4 and 5 and plans to submit to the Russian Federal Financial Markets Service (“FFMS”) a set of documents for registration of the above tranches.

In accordance with the Prospectus, the bonds will have maturity of 7 years.  Notional amount of each tranche will total RUR 8 billion (8 million bonds at a par value of RUR 1,000).  The bonds are non-convertible, interest bearing, documentary.  The form of placement will be open subscription. 

X5 Retail Group CFO Evgeny Kornilov commented:

"X5 continues to grow, and ruble bond market offers interesting fund raising opportunities.  Therefore, we are making steps to prepare for a potential placement.  Final decision on the issue, including timing, size and interest rate will depend on the development of the situation in the debt markets and X5’s financing needs”.