OREANDA-NEWS. National Rating Agency's positive outlook on Lenta LLC has translated into its credit rating upgrade to 'AA+' on the national scale. The outlook for the rating is Stable. NRA assigned its first-time 'AA-' credit rating to Lenta LLC on Sep. 14, 2012. The latest rating action on the company ('AA' credit rating affirmation with a positive outlook) was on Dec. 18, 2015.

Founded in St. Petersburg in 1993, Lenta LLC is a food and consumer products retailer. Lenta LLC is the group's principal asset holder and its only operating company. It is owned by Lenta Ltd (incorporated in British Virgin Islands), which acts as a holding company and produces consolidated financials according to IFRS. Lenta Ltd's main shareholders are the TPG Capital investment fund (around 34%), and EBRD (around 7.37%). Lenta LLC owns one of Russia's largest retail chains (number five by consolidated revenue in 2015).

At year-end 2015, the company operated 140 hypermarkets and 32 supermarkets in 69 Russian cities and towns with a total trading area of 882,383 sq. meters, a 25.8% increase year-on-year. The company's retail chain is growing at a brisk pace, with 32 hypermarkets and 8 supermarkets opened in 2015 in addition to 31 and 14 respectively in 2014.