Nizhny Novgorod developer “Radio Gigabit” has been re-registered as Russian citizens

As Kommersant found out, the American Radio Gigabit Inc. left the founders of the Nizhny Novgorod developer of telecommunications equipment Radio Gigabit, and now the direct owners of the company include current and former top managers of MTS and Maxima Group of Companies. Radio Gigabit itself explains the change in ownership structure by the “geopolitical situation.” Kommersant’s market sources believe that in the future the company will be resold to a specialized investor, naming Yadro among the potential buyers.

Nizhny Novgorod LLC Radio Gigabit Systems (the management company of the developer of communication solutions Radio Gigabit) changed owners on December 22, Kommersant discovered in SPARK-Interfax. Previously, the company was 99.96% owned by the American Radio Gigabit Inc. and by 0.4% to Vladimir Ssorin. Now its owners are eight Russian individuals.

The new ownership structure is as follows: 25.9% from the technical director of Maxima Group of Companies Mikhail Minkovsky, 20.3% from the general director of Maxima Telecom SZ Igor Kalyuzhny, 14.6% from the former vice president of MTS Andrey Ushatsky, 13, 1% from the ex-CEO of Radio Gigabit Roman Maslennikov, 7.3% from the current director of the company Vladimir Ssorin, 6.7% from Vsevolod Illarionov, 6.1% from Alexey Artemenko and 5.6% from Yulia Minkovskaya.

According to a Kommersant source in the IT market, in fact, this is not a sale, but a restructuring of ownership: “If previously the same owners owned Radio Gigabit through the American Radio Gigabit Inc., now they have entered into the capital directly.” Radio Gigabit told Kommersant that the change of owners is related to the process of “reorganization of the group due to the geopolitical situation,” refraining from further comments.

Kommersant’s interlocutor in the electronics market suggests that the restructuring of the company was required for its further sale to a large Russian player in the telecommunications market: according to him, completing the transaction before the change in the composition of the company’s founders carried significant risks for its beneficiaries. Denis Primakov, head of the Sanctions Law and Compliance practice at the KIAP law office, clarifies that American legal entities, if they receive funds from sanctioned companies, may face criminal liability for violation of sanctions up to 20 years in prison.

A number of Kommersant sources in the telecommunications market suggest that the company Yadro is vying for the acquisition of Radio Gigabit, which has been negotiating its purchase since the end of 2022. “The main value of Radio Gigabit is its competence in the development of the radio frequency part of communication equipment. In Russia, perhaps, only the Tomsk Micran has such competencies, but Radio Gigabit, unlike it, works only in the civilian market,” explains one of Kommersant’s sources among telecommunications equipment developers. Yadro did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

Yadro may buy Radio Gigabit to implement two of its projects – the development of 5G base stations and 1440 communications satellites, suggests a source in the electronics market: “The Radio Gigabit team has sufficient competence to strengthen and accelerate the development of base stations and satellites for Yadro. But then Radio Gigabit will have to refuse cooperation with potential competitors of Yadro, for example, Irthea.” Given the shortage of highly qualified specialists in the field of equipment development, he emphasizes, large players are forced to buy out small and medium-sized companies, including for the sake of their personnel.

Timofey Kornev, Nikita Korolev