Group-IB highlights FAC.C.T. – Business – Kommersant
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Group-IB has completed the division of business: the general director of the Russian division, Valery Baulin, bought out a stake in the local asset from the co-founder of the company, Dmitry Volkov, who withdrew from the shareholders. Ilya Sachkov, the first founder of Group-IB, who has been under arrest on suspicion of treason since September 2021, remains the main shareholder of the new Russian structure, which received a new brand – FAC.С.T. The rest of Group-IB’s business will continue to operate under this brand in the international market only. Kommersant’s interlocutors in the industry believe that the deal could have been penniless: in order to retain Group-IB’s foreign customers, it is important to distance oneself from Russia.
Russian assets of Group-IB founded by Ilya Sachkov (since September 2021 located under arrest on suspicion of treason) and working in the field of cybersecurity and cyberforensics, were bought out by local shareholders and top management, Kommersant was told in the company. Business development in Russia will continue under a new brand – FAC.C.T. (Fight Against Cybercrime Technologies). Group-IB will be represented only on the international market.
The division of the company into local and international business began in 2022 (see “Kommersant” of July 6), when the company announced the first stage of business diversification – the withdrawal of Group IB Global Private Limited (the company’s head structure) from the Russian business (LLC IB Service Group). Under the control of the global headquarters of Group-IB Global Private Ltd, the Cyber Threat Research Centers in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East remained.
Russian assets were allocated in the summer to Adaptive Security Technologies LLC. The company was 37.5% and 25% owned, respectively, by Group-IB co-founders Ilya Sachkov and Dmitry Volkov, another 25% was transferred to Altera Capital LLC by Kirill Androsov and 12.5% to Cyberinvest LLC by Tatyana Polishchuk. During the final stage of the asset split, Dmitry Volkov, co-founder and CEO of Group-IB, sold his stake to Valery Baulin, who became the CEO of FAC.С.T. (previously headed Group-IB in Russia and the CIS). The ownership structure of Adaptive Security Technologies LLC will be as follows: 37.5% – Ilya Sachkov, 25% – Altera Capital, 15% – Alexey Kozyrev, 12.5% - Cyberinvest and 10% – Valery Baulin. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
According to Rustem Khairetdinov, Deputy General Director of Garda Technologies, the deal is rather formal: “This is the transfer of the company to the management of top management, and it makes no sense to evaluate its monetary volume.”
The revenue of Aibi Group LLC at the end of 2021 amounted to 457 million rubles. with a net loss of 151 million rubles. Since 2018, the revenue of the head organization of the group LLC IB Service Group has not been disclosed. The financial performance of Adaptive Security Technologies LLC for 2022 has not yet been published in the SPARK-Interfax database.
As the company clarified to Kommersant, it retained all contracts with Russian clients, as well as products, technologies and services developed in the country. IN interview “Kommersant” in September 2022, Mr. Baulin said that the exchange of expertise at the level of specialists in reverse engineering, computer forensics, technical indicators, tactics with Group IB’s foreign offices should continue: “We maintain this connection.”
The interlocutor of Kommersant in the cybersecurity industry believes that the main goal of the division of assets is most likely to preserve the Group-IB brand abroad, since the company’s share of international business has grown in recent years: “In the context of sanctions and the political situation, Group IB is important to show foreign customers that the company is no longer directly connected with Russia, and the local business operates autonomously.”
According to him, the Russian team of the new brand is well known in the industry, so it will not be difficult for it to extend contracts with current customers, but in order to get new ones, it will have to earn a reputation: “Now the competition in the segment is intensifying, but FACCT has almost no competitors in the field of cyberforensics” .
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