KESKO CORPORATION STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 15.02.2012 AT 13.00 1(1)

The Financial Supervisory Authority has today given its permission to carry out the second phase of the transfer of the Kesko Group companies' statutory pension insurance liability portfolio, agreed between the Kesko Pension Fund and Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company in December 2009, with effect from 1 January 2012. The second phase of the transfer of the insurance portfolio and pension liability now carried out concerns some 5,600 employees of the Kesko Group.

The second transfer of the insurance liability portfolio now carried out is part of the plan announced on 30 December 2009 to transfer the management of Kesko's statutory pension provision and insurance portfolio in two phases from the Kesko Pension Fund to Ilmarinen.

The transfer now carried out will not have a significant impact on Kesko's profit for the first quarter.

The Kesko Pension Fund has had surplus assets with respect to the pension liabilities now transferred. The surplus assets planned to be returned later this year by the Kesko Pension Fund to employers with an insurance policy with it are expected to generate a positive cash flow to Kesko. The surplus to be returned has been included in Kesko's consolidated statement of financial position as a pension asset.

Returning the surplus is conditional on the approval of the Financial Supervisory Authority.

The transfer of Kesko's statutory pension insurance provision and insurance portfolio has been previously announced in a stock exchange release on 30 December 2009 and 1 September 2010.

Further information:
Riitta Laitasalo, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Kesko Corporation, tel. +358 10 53 22060
Jukka Erlund, Senior Vice President, CFO, Kesko Corporation, tel. +358 10 53 22113

Kesko Corporation

Merja Haverinen
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Responsibility

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