PYATEROCHKA AND LIZA ALERT LAUNCH JOINT PROJECT TO HELP SEARCH FOR MISSING PEOPLE

Moscow, 26 March 2019 - X5 Retail Group N.V. ('X5' or the 'Company'), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE and MOEX ticker: "FIVE"), announces the launch of a joint project by Pyaterochka retail chain, the Centre to Search for Missing People ('CSMP') and the Liza Alert search and rescue team. The project will set up "safety zones" in retail stores across Moscow and the Moscow region to help lost elderly people and children find their way home as soon as possible.

Pyaterochka is the first retail chain to launch such a project in partnership with Liza Alert. Initially, it will involve over 2,600 stores in Moscow and the Moscow region, with each new store in these regions joining the project. Participating stores will designate a special area marked by an orange geolocation sign to serve as a landmark for lost people. In the store, a lost person can either ask any employee for help or wait for assistance at the designated area. The store director will then call the CSMP hotline to report that a lost person has been found. Depending on the circumstances, the CSMP operator will decide whether to call an ambulance, the police, or contact Liza Alert to send their representative to the store. Pyaterochka's personnel in Moscow and the Moscow region have been trained to identify a lost and disoriented person and provided with appropriate guidelines on actions to be taken when spotting a lost individual in their store.

"This partnership with Liza Alert is an opportunity for the Pyaterochka team to be active participants in civil society, and I really hope that we can make a contribution to help return missing people to their homes," said Pyaterochka General Director Sergey Goncharov.

"Most Pyaterochkas are located in residential areas. With a retail store in almost every neighbourhood, both children and the elderly, who face the greatest risk, can easily find their way to the nearest store. This makes us hopeful that our joint project will facilitate the search for missing people and help return them to their families safe and sound," said CSMP General Director and Liza Alert Chairman Grigory Sergeev.

According to Liza Alert, some 100,000 people are reported missing in Russia every year. To facilitate their search, Pyaterochka and Liza Alert have created a special website, enabling all those interested to sign up, post information about their missing friends and family members, and initiate a search effort. The website will become fully operational on 4 April. 

Note to Editors:

X5 Retail Group N.V. (LSE and MOEX: FIVE, Fitch - 'BB+', Moody's - 'Ba2', S&P - 'BB', RAEX - 'ruAA') is a leading Russian food retailer. The Company operates several retail formats: the chain of proximity stores under the Pyaterochka brand, the supermarket chain under the Perekrestok brand, the hypermarket chain under the Karusel brand and Express convenience stores under various brands.

As of 31 December 2018, X5 had 14,431 Company-operated stores. It has the leading market position in both Moscow and St Petersburg and a significant presence in the European part of Russia. Its store base includes 13,522 Pyaterochka proximity stores, 760 Perekrestok supermarkets, 94 Karusel hypermarkets and 55 convenience stores. The Company operates 42 DCs and 3,830 Company-owned trucks across the Russian Federation.

For the full year 2018, revenue totalled RUB 1,532,537 mln (USD 24,439 mln), Adjusted EBITDA reached RUB 109,871 mln (USD 1,752 mln), and net profit for the period amounted to RUB 28,642 mln (USD 457 mln).

X5's Shareholder structure is as follows: CTF Holdings S.A. - 47.86%, Intertrust Trustees Ltd (Axon Trust) - 11.43%, X5 Directors - 0.07%, treasury shares - 0.01%, Shareholders with less than 3% - 40.63%.

Liza Alert, a non-profit search and rescue volunteer organisation was created in 2010. The search efforts take place both in cities and the countryside. With over 10,000 people on board, Liza Alert operates in 46 regions across the country. The team consists of 19 different functional areas that help to ensure a rapid and effective response to each request to find a missing person, including hotline operators, information coordinators, dog trainers, equestrian search groups, mapping experts, communications specialists, on-duty officers, a special-purpose group and others. 

In the over eight years since inception, Liza Alert has been involved in numerous search and rescue efforts, helping to find over 36,000 people alive. During this period, the team has responded to 45,000 missing person requests.

In 2018, Liza Alert responded to 13,996 search requests, resulting in:

10,983 individuals found alive;

1,493 individuals found dead;

287 relatives found;

46 identities established;

1,187 individuals not found. 

For comparison, the number of search requests received in 2017 was 9,406.

Liza Alert is open to anyone over the age of 18 years. To join the team, they need to sign up at the lizaalert.org website and follow the news on new search efforts. Search requests, reports on missing persons, assistance offers, and other information is accepted around the clock over the toll free hotline: +7 800 700 5452.

The Centre to Search for Missing People is a non-profit organisation that aims to train and equip search and rescue volunteers, pool the resources of law enforcement agencies (Interior Ministry, EMERCOM, and the Investigative Committee), regional authorities, and volunteers, conduct prevention activities for children and adults, and create regional resource centres for search efforts. The CSMP was established in 2014 and currently has six resource centres in Samara, Ulan-Ude, Kostroma, Kirov, Rostov-on-Don, and Moscow.

Forward looking statements:

This announcement includes statements that are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not only relate to historical or current events. Forward-looking statements often use words such as "anticipate", "target", "expect", "estimate", "intend", "expected", "plan", "goal", "believe", or other words of similar meaning.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances, a number of which are beyond X5 Retail Group N.V.'s control. As a result, actual future results may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set out in these forward-looking statements.

Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of X5 Retail Group N.V. speak only as of the date of this announcement. Save as required by any applicable laws or regulations, X5 Retail Group N.V. undertakes no obligation publicly to release the results of any revisions to any forward-looking statements in this document that may occur due to any change in its expectations or to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document.

Elements of this press release contain or may contain inside information about X5 Retail Group N.V. within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014/EU).