Russia's Fix Price reports 29.2% rise in Q1 revenue after March IPO

MOSCOW, April 15 (Reuters) - Russian low-cost retailer Fix Price’s first-quarter revenue rose 29.2% to 51.7 billion roubles ($672.7 million), the company said on Thursday, in its first financial results statement since its market debut in London last month.

Fix Price raised around $2 billion in an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in early March, capitalising on the COVID-19 pandemic reducing Russians’ spending power.

That was the biggest Russian IPO since western sanctions were introduced in 2014.

Fix Price, which sells low-priced goods in walk-in shops and online, has now posted 17 consecutive quarters of double-digit like-for-like sales growth, Chief Executive Dmitry Kirsanov said. In the first quarter, like-for-like sales grew 11.9%.

“Performance remains in line with management expectations and budget, and we look forward to announcing our debut interim financial results as a public company in August 2021,” Kirsanov said.

Fix Price increased its total number of stores to 4,354 and opened in 47 new locations in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Latvia in the last quarter, the company said in a statement.

Kirsanov said higher like-for-like sales and the faster pace of new store openings were among the key drivers of the revenue increase.