The founder and CEO of Invitro Alexander Ostrovsky leaves the company, Roman Mironchik becomes its new shareholder

In one of the largest medical groups in Russia, Invitro, with more than 1.9 thousand branches, the owner is changing. Founder and CEO Alexander Ostrovsky is leaving the company, and businessman Roman Mironchik will become its owner. Laboratories’ revenue is declining after the COVID-19 incidence declines, but analysts single out Invitro due to its diversified business and wide geographical distribution.

The founder and CEO of the medical group “Invitro” Alexander Ostrovsky leaves the company, and Roman Mironchik becomes its new shareholder. Mr. Ostrovsky announced this on July 20 in a letter to Invitro employees. I read the text of the appeal to Kommersant. As Mr. Ostrovsky noted in his letter, with a new shareholder, the company should continue to develop and reach a new level.

In Invitro, Kommersant confirmed the change of ownership.

“The change of the shareholder will not affect the current activities of the company, the operational management of which continues to be carried out by Yulia Polikhova,” says a representative of Invitro.

Dmitry Gabyshev, managing director of Peregrine Capital, estimated the cost of Invitro at 12-15 billion rubles. or 5–6 EBITDA for 2022.

“Invitro” exists since 1995, specializes in laboratory diagnostics and provision of medical services. Unites more than 1.9 thousand medical offices in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. The parent structure of Invitro, according to SPARK-Interfax, is the Cypriot Invitro Holding ltd., whose co-owners were Mr. Ostrovsky, Valentin Doronichev and Vladimir Kulikovsky. Russia Partners funds had another 30%, Forbes wrote in 2021. The industry publication Vademecum estimated the group’s total revenue in 2021 at 39.2 billion rubles.

Invitro has been looking for an investor for years. In 2021, the group planned to enter the IPO, having been placed in Russia and on one of the foreign sites, counting on an assessment of $1 billion. In 2022, among those interested in buying Invitro, the Vademecum publication named Kismet Capital Group (KCG) ex-CEO of MegaFon Ivan Tavrin. KCG told Kommersant that they had nothing to do with the current deal.

Alexander Ostrovsky in his address called Mr. Mironchik “an investor with extensive international experience.” Newspaper Vedomosti in June, she wrote that Roman Mironchik is a co-owner of the Ezreal company, which won the auction for the sale of a facility in the west of Moscow in the Krylatskoye district, where it was planned to build a sports and recreation complex. As follows from SPARK, structures associated with the businessman manage the Bakhrushin House business center, Solnechny and Belka shopping centers. He also heads LLC International Hockey Academy. A. M. Ovechkin, is a member of the Board of Directors of TKB Bank and, together with Yuri Berezovsky and Evgeny Ivanovsky, owns TKB Investments. The latter in 2022 received 0.1% of the head structure of the Evroonko clinic LLC Center for Innovative Medical Technologies. TKB and TKB Investments did not provide a comment. It was not possible to contact Mr. Mironchik.

The market for laboratory diagnostics has been highly dependent on the demand associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years. But with a decrease in the incidence of COVID-19, the revenue of laboratories began to decline, market participants noted.

In 2022, the revenue of Invitro LLC decreased by 19.23% year-on-year, to 11.25 billion rubles, net profit decreased by 65.66%, to 703.72 million rubles. The effect of COVID-19 has faded, but consumers are accustomed to performing regular tests, Mr. Gabyshev notes. He refers to the strengths of Invitro as a diversified business, a willingness to work in related segments and a wide geographical representation.

In addition to its own, more than 1,000 laboratories have been opened by Invitro under a franchise. Franchise development increases capitalization, brand awareness and accessibility for the end consumer, says Franchiza.ru expert Anna Rozhdestvenskaya. In her opinion, changes in the strategy in this direction should not be expected in the near future, since the new owners are more likely to have the task of demonstrating the stability of the business to partners.

Polina Gritsenko