Pursuant to the Rules and Regulations of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange d.d., and the relevant legislation, the company Poslovni sistem Mercator d.d., Ljubljana, hereby informs the shareholders and the public of the following:

Mercator Group's performance in the first nine months of this year shows positive trends in revenue, EBITDA and the bottom line. The Group's sales revenue in the first nine months grew by 1.6% compared to the equivalent period of the preceding year and amounted to EUR 1.64 billion. Compared to the same period last year, the company Poslovni sistem Mercator d.d. saw its sales revenue grow by 5.6% as it reached EUR 929 million. Retail revenue at the company Poslovni sistem Mercator d.d. increased by 4.7% and reached EUR 691.4 million in the period 1–9, 2019, while net profit for the entire company was up by 7.6% or by EUR 1.1 million relative to the equivalent period of the year before. Mercator Group wrapped up the period 1–9 2019 with a positive bottom line.

In the first nine months of 2019, Mercator Group's normalized EBITDA increased and reached EUR 130.5 million. Mercator Group's comparable net profit for the period 1–9, 2019, exceeds the figure for the comparable period of the year before by EUR 9.6 million. "Clear strategy through which Mercator stresses cooperation with local and regional suppliers, new commercial platforms, and new innovative retail concepts focusing on convenient store formats have improved Mercator's competitiveness and have evidently yielded solid business results," stressed Tomislav Čizmić, President of the Management Board at Mercator Group.

In the first nine months of 2019, Mercator Group was thus highly successful in terms of its further pursuit of the goals laid down in its business strategy, as well as in terms of its financial and business restructuring. At the same time, it accomplished its key goals regarding deleveraging, and considerably improved the maturity profile of its financial liabilities. Compared to the equivalent period of the preceding year, net financial debt as at September 30, 2019, was lower by 18.1%. Compared to the same period last year, the net financial debt was thus cut by EUR 139.4 million. The ratio between net financial debt and normalized EBITDA as at September 30, 2019, was 5.8, which means that it is 21.8% lower than in the same period of the year before.

This announcement will be published on the company’s website at www.mercatorgroup.si as of November 27, 2019, and will remain published for a period of at least five years.