MOSCOW, Oct 17 Reuters Russian supermarket chain Lenta39;s on Tuesday said it had acquired the Monetka chain of 2,120 convenience stores for an undisclosed sum in a deal financed by cash and debt.

Shoppers have faced surging prices and falling incomes since the Kremlin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, hitting spending power and boosting demand for cutprice goods.

Monetka has around 23,000 employees and operates mostly in the Urals and Western Siberia, strengthening Lenta39;s position there. Lenta said the Monetka brand would live on and that some of its Mini Lenta stores would be rebranded as Monetka.

The transaction was approved by the Lenta board of directors and Russia39;s Federal AntiMonopoly Service FAS, Lenta said.

Am ambitious but achievable task now stands before us integrating the assets of two of the leading grocery chains in the country, Lenta CEO Vladimir Sorokin said in a statement.

This would involve combining the two chains39; best practices and then integrating logistics, IT and operating systems, Sorokin said.

Lenta rivals X5, Magnit and O39;Key have all hailed the importance of discount stores in their strategies in the past year.

Lenta said the Monetka acquisition would help it in achieving strategic plans to achieve revenues of 1 trillion roubles 10.28 billion by 2025.

1 97.2900 roubles

Reporting by Olga Popova and Alexander Marrow, Editing by Louise Heavens

Source Reuters