Moscow, 4 September 2018 – X5 Retail Group N.V. (“X5” or the “Company”), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE and MOEX ticker: FIVE) and Sovcombank, one of the largest privately owned banks in Russia, are assessing the establishment of a joint venture (JV) for delivering packages ordered from online stores to a network of parcel lockers. X5 has filed a request with the Federal Antimonopoly Service to approve the acquisition of a 50% stake in TsTB (“Digital Technologies of the Future”), a company currently fully owned by Sovcombank.
Today, TsTB has 450 parcel lockers operating under the Halva brand, and it plans to expand the network to more than 1,500 lockers. The proposed JV would install parcel lockers at X5 stores over the next five years.
The JV with Sovcombank would enable X5 to speed up the roll-out of a locker network across its stores and to start pilot-testing of a collaborative logistics model. X5 will also benefit from an additional flow of parcels and packages after launching an in-house fulfilment centre.