Russian retailer Magnit has booked an increase in profit in the first nine months of the year, boosted by a high pace of new store openings and a focus on low prices.
In the nine months to the end of September, net income soared 140.6% to RUR17.29bn (US$600.9m). The group increased its selling space by 30% in the period, adding 810 stores.
EBITDA increased 89.4% to RUR32.74bn, with EBITDA margin amounting to 10.25%, 3.05 percentage points above last year's figure of 7.2%.
Sales climbed 33% year-on-year to RUR319.48bn as a result of an increase in selling space and a 4.6% increase in like-for-like sales.
"Once again we have delivered very good results but please understand that this is not the most crucial thing for us," said CEO Sergey Galitskiy. "Rather, the most important objective for us is to build a competitive business model. It is the market that will determine the level of the EBITDA margin."