Twiga has started “April” – Kommersant

Twiga Communication Group has acquired a 60% stake in April digital agency, which previously promoted foreign brands Estee Lauder, Red Bull, Audi, Porsche and others. The transaction, the amount of which, according to the parties, amounted to 500 million rubles, will allow the group to receive revenues in the PR-SMM segment in the amount of 1 billion rubles already in 2024. However, other market participants are skeptical about the prospects for integration. They believe that the deal could, on the contrary, negatively affect Twiga’s position, since April suffered losses in 2022 due to the loss of most of its customers. At the same time, experts recognize the importance of retaining teams and expertise in the industry.

A representative of the Twiga marketing and communications group told Kommersant that it had completed the acquisition of a 60% stake in the Aprel digital agency from its founders.

According to the co-founder of the agency Sergey Kokarev, the deal will strengthen Twiga’s expertise in the field of new media (social networks, bloggers, digital media). “We hope that April will become an important part of our PR-SMM vertical,” added Sergey Ogandzhanyan, Managing Director of Twiga. The company expects that the entry of the agency will allow the group to increase its revenue to 1 billion rubles. in the PR-SMM segment by 2024. According to the parties, the deal amounted to 500 million rubles.

Experts consider the value of the transaction announced by the parties to be too high. Thus, Leonid Delitsyn, an analyst at FG Finam, estimates April at only 120 million rubles: “Twiga is actually just buying a team that has been working in the young market since its inception.” Another interlocutor of Kommersant on the market is generally sure that the cost of the transaction “could be 20–30 million rubles, but definitely not more than 50 million rubles.” “The assessment strongly depends on the client portfolio – what was the proportion of departed Western brands and Russian companies in it,” the Kommersant source clarified.

The volume of the global new media market, according to PwC forecasts, should reach $2.6 trillion by 2023, while the Russian share in its total volume is only 1.1% ($30.5 billion). But now, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor in the industry, “it is, in fact, impossible to realistically assess the size of the new media market.” “The Law on Advertising Labeling will most likely streamline the market, then it will become more transparent,” the Kommersant source believes. On September 1, 2022, amendments to the law “On Advertising” came into force, according to which a unified system for accounting for all online advertising in the Russian Federation was created and each ad must be marked, including placements with bloggers.

Taking into account the fact that April served mostly Western brands that left the Russian Federation, its acquisition will not bring new customers to Twiga, the source of Kommersant in the industry believes. “In fact, obtaining this business will not affect Twiga’s position in the market in any way, and the agency’s losses may affect the performance of the group as a whole,” he notes. In addition, the Kommersant source emphasizes, “The new media market is already occupied by agencies that historically work with large clients, so it would be a mistake to say that Twiga will be able to get their place in the next six months.”

With the departure of international companies, the business of many agencies “obviously sank”, “in this regard, consolidation becomes a good option for preserving business and teams,” admits Alla Aksenova, general director of the PR Development communication agency. She expects further consolidation of the market as an alternative to the withdrawal of large foreign network companies from it.

Julia Yurasova