Bookvoed is stocked by Popcorn Books – Newspaper Kommersant No. 148 (7349) dated 08/16/2022

Bookmate Limited, which owns the e-book service of the same name, has left the capital of the Russian publishing houses Individuum and Popcorn Books. The company, as well as co-founder of Individuum Alexander Dokuchaev and CEO of Bookmate in the Russian Federation Andrey Baev sold their shares to Denis Kotov, co-owner of the Chitay-gorod-Bukvoed network. Experts believe that publishing houses may eventually “fall under the influence” of the Eksmo-AST group, the main owner of which is Oleg Novikov, the beneficiary of the network. But the group itself assures that the businessman has nothing to do with the deal.

“Kommersant” found in the SPARK-Interfax database that since July 27, Denis Kotov, co-owner of the united book network “Chitai-Gorod-Bukvoed”, has become the owner of 100% of Individual Print LLC and 100% of Popcorn Books LLC. The book reviewer Maxim Mamlyga was the first to notice this in his Telegram channel.

publishing house individual founded in 2015 by Alexei Dokuchaev and Mikhail Vrubel and specializes in non-fiction literature. In 2018, a share in the publishing house was bought out by Bookmate (headquartered in Dublin), which owns the service of the same name for reading and listening to books by subscription. After the deal, Bookmate and Individuum founded the brand Popcorn Booksunder which they began to develop the direction of youth literature. Prior to the sale to Denis Kotov, 51% of Individual Print LLC was owned by Bookmate Limited, another 49% was owned by Alexei Dokuchaev. Before the transaction, Bookmate Limited controlled 65.5% of Popcorn Books LLC, Alexey Dokuchaev – 24.5%, Andrey Baev, CEO of Bookmate in Russia – 10%.

Denis Kotov – founder of the St. Petersburg book network “Bukvoed”. In 2008, it merged with the Novyi Knizhniy chain, later renamed Chitay-Gorod, to form Chitay-Gorod-Bukvoed, the largest bookselling network in the Russian Federation. From the data of SPARK-Interfax, it follows that now Denis Kotov owns 7.09% in Chitay-gorod LLC and the same share in Partner ID LLC. Since 2020, the main beneficiary of the network has been Oleg Novikov, who also, according to Kommersant’s sources, continues to actually control the Eksmo-AST group, despite the formal exit from its capital (see “Kommersant” dated June 27).

In Eksmo-AST, Kommersant was assured that the group and its members were not related to the deal.

Denis Kotov did not disclose the amount paid for the assets, specifying only that this was his “investment as an individual”: “The prospect of publishing houses entering Eksmo-AST is not traced.”

Individuum co-founder Alexander Dokuchaev clarified to Kommersant that he remains the general director of the publishing house: “There will be no personnel changes, publishing houses work as usual, the editorial policy is determined by the editors-in-chief and I.” Felix Sandalov, editor-in-chief of Individuum, also said that no personnel and structural changes are planned.

According to SPARK-Interfax, the revenue of Individual Print LLC in 2021 amounted to 189 million rubles, net profit – 35 million rubles. According to the results of 2021, Popcorn Books LLC had a loss of 1.4 million rubles. with a revenue of 10 million rubles. At the same time, sales of Young Adult literature (YA), which Popcorn Books specializes in, grew noticeably in Russia in 2022: Eksmo-AST estimated sales growth in YA at 280% in the first half of the year (see “Kommersant” dated July 15). In this regard, the size of the transaction could amount to hundreds of millions of rubles, one of Kommersant’s interlocutors in the book market believes.

Deal to withdraw from publishing houses, and earlier – the sale of rights to use the technology of the book service “Yandex” (see “Kommersant” dated June 30) means that, in fact, Bookmate is leaving Russia, although the service still has local users, Vladimir Kharitonov, head of the Association of Internet Publishers, believes. He suggests that Denis Kotov may be the nominal owner, and publishing houses may, in fact, fall under the control of Eksmo-AST: “I really hope that the new owner will not influence the editorial policy.”

Even if Individuum and Popcorn enter Eksmo-AST, it is important for the latter to retain its publishing portfolio and teams, literary critic Galina Yuzefovich believes: which, having been bought by the same owners a few years ago, gained access to distribution, accounting and other Eksmo services, while maintaining a completely independent position in the holding.”

Valeria Lebedeva