FAS approved the sale of retail chains Zarina and Sela to Kismet Capital

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia has agreed on a deal for the purchase of Zarina, Befree, Love Republic and Sela retail chains by Radio Reklama NN. This was reported in the press service of the department.

“The advertising agency plans to acquire up to 75% of the shares of MFG Invest JSC, as well as the right to control the activities of Melon Fashion Group JSC and Taxi.Style LLC,” the FAS said in a statement.

The service concluded that the deal would not affect competition in the apparel, footwear and accessories retail market.

According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Radio Advertisement NN is registered in Nizhny Novgorod. The General Director is Olga Dupak. 99.9% of the company is owned by Infrastructural Holding-1 LLC, registered in Moscow. He manages the legal entity Complex Solutions LLC, headed by CEO Ivan Tavrin, who founded the investment company Kismet Capital Group.

In 2022 Kismet Capital Group received permission from the FAS and the government commission for the control of foreign investments on the acquisition of a 100% share of the classified “Avitofrom the South African holding Naspers. The amount of the transaction was estimated at 151 billion rubles.

Kismet Capital Group was founded in 2016 by Tavrin, who previously was the CEO of the operator “Megaphone“. She has been involved in investment deals with HeadHunter, Cian and Ozon. Now Kismet owns the Media-1 entertainment holding, which includes the children’s Disney Channel, the Muz-TV music channel and the Yu entertainment channel, as well as companies that operate digital outdoor advertising, radio and telecommunications infrastructure.

August 7 Swedish company Eastnine AB reported, which entered into an agreement on the sale of 36% in Melon Fashion Group with the Russian company Gem Invest LLC. It is expected that the transaction, which will take place in several stages, will be closed within two weeks. The company has already received approval from the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the government commission for foreign investment control. In May, Interfax, citing sources in the market, reported that Anatoly Paliy’s investment company Gem Capital received permission from the authorities to buy a little more than 80% of the shares of Melon Fashion Group for almost 500 million rubles.