RTI, a large Russian group of high-tech research and production companies, announced on Tuesday the acquisition of NVision, a Moscow based system integrator with regional representative offices in Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg, as well as in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
RTI will pay $200 million in exchange for a 50% stake in NVision, while the remaining 50% will be swapped through an additional share issue by RTI. The deal will be finalized by the end of Q3 2012, NVision’s press service told ComNews.ru, a Russian online publication covering the IT and telecom markets.
This acquisition was expected since last November, when AFK Sistema, a diversified conglomerate and RTI’s parent company, performed due diligence on NVision. Previously, in 2010, NVision had attracted the attention of Rostelecom, the national telecommunications operator, and became its subcontractor for state e-government projects.
RTI already holds one system integrator, Sitronics IT, but the question of a possible integration has not been discussed yet.
Among the goals of the acquisition is to reinforce Sistema’s presence in the IT market and, in particular, its capacity to conduct e-government projects, Russian business daily Vedomosti noted.
Last May, NVision estimated that its 2011 revenues could reach 21.2 billion rubles, or approximately $700 million.
