Bucharest October, 12 2009: effective October 15th 2009, a new Managing Director is appointed for real,- Romania. Mr. Michel Lamoot, Procurement and Merchandising Director Non Food at real,- Poland will join the real,- Romania team as Managing Director.

Mr. Michel Lamoot started his career in retail in 1979 and held various management positions within the hypermarket industry at international level, South Korea, Japan and France. In 2008 he joined METRO Group as Procurement and Merchandising Director Non Food at real,- Poland. He graduated on Hotel and restaurant management degrees at Grenoble University in France.

“I am very pleased to take over this challenging position and to join the Romanian real,- team. As a first step, I am looking forward to get acquainted with the domestic retail market and to meet my colleagues at real,-Romania. I am committed to continue the successful strategy of fulfilling the needs of the Romanian customers by offering high quality products and services in our real,- stores allover the country. I am confident that the challenging aspiration of real,- to become the preferred hypermarket for every shopping trip of our customers will be reached even if it is not an easy job in the current competitive Romanian economic environment. However my objectives are to ensure a large variety of quality goods at very competitive prices, own brands portfolio development, a sustained and balanced expansion strategy and excellent services provided by all our professional staff " declared Mr. Michel Lamoot.

At the moment real,- is preparing for the 22nd store opening, which shall take place at the end of October. real,- Hypermarket will inaugurate a new store placed in AFI Palace Cotroceni, the largest mall in Romania located at the junction of Vasile Milea Street and Timisoara Bvd.

Notes for the editors:

Last year real, - Romania registered a very strong growth as a result of both new store openings and organic sales growth. The turnover increased from Ron 1.22 billion (Euro 367 million) to Ron 2.35 billion (Euro 638 million) that represents a notable growth of 92% (73.8% for Euro equivalent adjusted with the currency effect) in comparison with the previous year 2007. At the same time real,- continued its ambitious expansion plan on the Romanian retail market with the opening of 6 new stores in 2008 and one in 2009, so, at this moment, the real,- Romania network counts 21 hypermarkets (Two hypermarkets in the cities: Bucuresti, Constanta, Oradea and Timisoara and one in the cities: Arad, Bacau, Baia Mare, Brasov, Cluj, Craiova, Deva, Galati, Pitesti, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Suceava and Tg. Mures).

The company headcount at the end of 2008 was of 7,568 employees (annual average including HO) with 3,054 more that the headcount at the end of 2007.

*Sales are net values (do not include VAT)