Russian retailer, Magnit, has posted a 1H 2009 Net Profit of $117.9 million under IFRS.

The bottom line is up 78.9% year on year, from the $68.9 million Net Profit posted for 1H 2008, with EBITDA up 42.3% to $224.2 million, despite Revenues falling 3.7% year on year to $2.37 billion in US dollar terms, although they were up 33% in Rouble terms.

CEO, Sergey Galitsky, said the better than expected stemmed from an effective cost management policy and underlined Magnit’s strategic direction. Noting the retailer’s small debt load and preparedness to plough profits back into the business, he stated that Magnit would be expanding further.

“We will continue to invest in our business going forward. We are not going to stop or slow down the rate of our business growth. In a mid-term perspective we will continue to focus on developing our logistics system: we plan to build additional distribution centers and to increase the owned vehicles’ fleet. We will also continue rapid construction of convenience stores and hypermarkets.”