Lenta now 40% owned by August Meyer

Russian grocery retailer Lenta has seen an American investor, August Meyer becomes its biggest stakeholder, after Meyer bought a 4.6% stake from VTB Capital. Meyer now owns a 41.04% stake in Lenta. Other shareholders are private equity TPG which holds a 30.8% stake in Lenta through the company Luna and EBRD with its 11% share. VTB Capital and TPG set up Luna last year when they bought a 35% stake from Oleg Zherebtsov.

The new shareholders of Lenta have found difficult to find a common strategy for the retailer’s development. Recently, Lenta’s board of directors made changes to the top management, replacing the CEO Jan Dunning with Sergei Yushenko.