The Mail.ru Group recently sold its stakes in Groupon and Zynga – 4.12% and 1.17%, respectively – and reduced its stake in Facebook from 0.75% to 0.52%, according to information published during the last few weeks on the group’s corporate website.
These stakes in leading US Internet companies resulted from investments made in 2009 and 2010 by DST, the top Russian fund from which the Mail.ru Group spun off before its introduction on the London Stock Exchange in late 2010.
While DST (now DST Global) kept the better part of these stakes, a fraction went to the Mail.ru Group in a move which was perceived as a way to increase the group’s attractiveness on stock markets.
This interpretation was confirmed in substance by the group’s General Manager, Dmitry Grishin, whom the Russian business daily Vedomosti recenty quoted as saying that these assets were “purely financial,” not strategic, and that the group intended to sell the remaining parts in the future.
The Mail.ru Group, which stands as the leading Russian Internet group, still owns 39.9% of Vkontakte.ru (VK.com), the premier Russian-language social network, and 21.35% of Qiwi, a top Russian electronic payment operator, as well as stakes in a range of smaller Russian and Ukrainian Internet companies.
This article was written by our syndication partners for Russia at East-West Digital News.
To view EWDN’s recent 316 page report on the Russian ecommerce market click here.