Avito has a new owner – Newspaper Kommersant No. 192 (7393) dated 10/15/2022
[ad_1]
Ivan Tavrin’s Kismet Capital Group (KCG) will become the new owner of the Avito classifieds service. The Avito Group was valued at 151 billion rubles during the transaction, which is close to completion, which, according to analysts, is less than the holding was worth before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine and the adoption in the first reading of the bill by Deputy Anton Gorelkin on limiting foreign participation to 20% in Russian classifieds.
Ivan Tavrin’s KCG holding signed an agreement to purchase 100% of the shares in the Avito ad service, exhibited in May for sale by the Prosus group. Binding agreement signed with South African investment holding Naspers, which includes Prosus, information about this is available on the holding’s website. Avito and KCG confirmed that the deal is in its final stages. The amount of the transaction will be about 151 billion rubles, the financing is organized by a consortium of banks headed by Rosselkhozbank, follows from the joint statement of the companies.
KCG received the relevant permissions from the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the government commission for the control of foreign investment in the Russian Federation, the report says.
Thus, the Avito group, which includes KEH eCommerce LLC, Avito Holding LLC with all their subsidiaries, will come under the control of the new owner and continue to operate as an independent private Russian IT company, the companies emphasize.
“Kismet views Avito as a strategic asset,” Ivan Tavrin is quoted in the message.
In March, it became known about the separation of Avito from OLX Group into a separate company, after which Prosus became the direct owner of 100% in Avito Holding LLC. Prosus announced that it was beginning to seek a buyer for the asset in connection with the withdrawal from Russia on May 20 in a post on its website.
In June, it became known that VK was negotiating the acquisition of Avito, businessman Vladimir Potanin was also interested in the asset (see “Kommersant” dated June 14). But according to The Bell, Mr. Tavrin’s holding offered the highest price. In addition, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors, the sellers were also influenced by the fact that Mr. Tavrin was an “understandable” investor for them: in the 2010s, he was on the board of directors of Mail.Ru Group, a large stake in which Naspers also owned.
KCG includes the entertainment holding Media-1 (children’s channels Disney Channel, Muz-TV and Yu), the outdoor advertising operator Gallery, the operator of antenna mast structures New Towers and other assets. New Towers was created on the basis of the merger of First Tower Company, which KCG acquired from MegaFon in 2021 for 94.2 billion rubles, Vertical and Russian Towers.
Finam analyst Leonid Delitsyn believes that KCG will not be the final owner of Avito and in a year or three will sell the company to a strategic investor, which may be the same VK or another company that creates its own ecosystem.
While Prosus was looking for a buyer for Avito, the State Duma was considering a bill by United Russia deputy Anton Gorelkin, which offers limit the maximum share of foreign ownership in large Russian classifieds to 20% of the authorized capital. Resources with a monthly audience from Russia of more than 10 million will fall into the category. Also, classifiers will have to install an audience counter approved by Roskomnadzor.
Prosus sold Avito cheaper than it could before the start of the special operation and the introduction of Anton Gorelkin’s bill, a source in the IT market notes.
According to him, after the outbreak of hostilities, the holding was estimated at 200-300 billion rubles, but after the adoption of the bill in the first reading, the price had to be reduced. Earlier, Raiffeisenbank analyst Sergey Libin estimated the cost of Avito before the introduction of the bill at 200–300 billion rubles, and after that at 100 billion rubles.
The bill to limit foreign ownership of classifieds passed its first reading on 5 July. If it is adopted in its current form, many services will fall under its action, from the CIAN and DomClick real estate search sites to the HeadHunter recruiting platform, Karen Kazaryan, director general of the Internet Research Institute, draws attention. However, in 2020, Yandex changed the ownership structure due to a similar legislative initiative by Mr. Gorelkin, which was then withdrawn. Anton Gorelkin did not respond to messages and calls from Kommersant.
[ad_2]
Source link
