The Rostelecom structure received 100% of two operators as collateral

Rostelecom (MOEX: RTKM) received as collateral 100% of Mango Telecom LLC and M.Developer LLC, companies providing IP telephony services and software development for corporate communications. Previously, the assets belonged to the structures of businessman Grigory Berezkin. Financial experts see “signs of a takeover” in the deal. Analysts estimate Mango Telecom at 5–6 billion rubles. and note that if it passes to Rostelecom, there will be no large independent companies left in the IP telephony market.

Telecom-1 LLC (a structure of Rostelecom) received as collateral 100% of Mango Telecom LLC and M.Developer LLC, owned by the Embassy Invest closed mutual fund, as collateral, according to data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, quoted by Interfax. The agreements were concluded on February 26. The Embassy Invest closed mutual fund itself became the owner of Mango Telecom LLC and M.Developer LLC on February 20, before which they belonged to the Cypriot Mango Cloud Systems Limited, controlled by the structures of Grigory Berezkin. Rostelecom and Mango Telecom declined to comment.

Mango Telecom LLC (Mango Office), registered in 2003, develops software and services for business communications, provides IP telephony and virtual PBX services. Virtual PBX – IP telephony management systems – telephone communication technologies over the Internet. At the end of 2022, the company’s revenue amounted to 4.5 billion rubles, net profit – 897.9 million rubles. M.Developer LLC (Mango Developer) was registered in 2019 and is engaged in the development and support of software for corporate communications. Revenue in 2022 amounted to 580 million rubles, net profit – 44.4 million rubles.

Chief analyst of Regblok Anna Avakimyan notes that Rostelecom is not a credit organization or an investment bank, therefore, “receiving as collateral the entire shareholding of Mango Telecom, a company several times smaller in scale, but operating in the same industry, has signs of a takeover ” According to the expert, this scheme is used due to “Rostelecom’s market position.” From the company’s financial statements for 2023 it follows that the subscriber base of its virtual PBX grew by 11%, to 300 thousand subscribers.

“Mango Telecom was estimated on average at x3–4 EBITDA. According to the company’s latest reporting, in 2022 the figure amounted to 1.6 billion rubles,” notes Alexey Slukin, editor of the Telegram channel Telekommunalka. “Therefore, the deal can be estimated at around 5–6 billion rubles.” Mango Telecom is the largest independent player in the IP telephony market, adds Mr. Slukin. “After MTS bought MTT, Rostelecom began to lose to it in the corporate segment, so the company needs to strengthen. In fact, only small companies are now independent in the IP telephony market,” he says. MTS and MTT declined to comment.

Executive Director of Vox Link LLC Vitaly Shelest estimates the size of the Russian IP telephony market at 70.4 billion rubles. with an average annual increase of 18%. Among the incentives for market growth, he notes “the emergence, during the period of import substitution, of new players in various sectors of the economy that require communication systems and the development of IP telephony solutions.” In many ways, interest in Internet communications is due to the systems’ capabilities in accumulating and processing data, “for example, if you use IP telephony as contact centers – now it includes processing not only voice, but also text channels of requests within a single operator’s workplace,” clarifies expert.

Alexey Zhabin, Tatyana Isakova, Yuri Litvinenko, Yulia Yurasova