Sberbank, Russia’s state-controlled financial giant, is to acquire a 46.5% stake in Rambler Group, a major online media and entertainment group. The deal gives Sberbank equal stake to investment holding company A&NN, which is affiliated to Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, while Era Capital owns the remaining 7%.
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but a source familiar with it told business daily Kommersant that the bank will inject around 11 billion rubles ($173 million at the current exchange rate) in the group in exchange for acquiring its stake. According to this unnamed source, the funding will be used to repay a Rambler bank debt and develop the group’s digital assets.
The transaction is still pending approval from the antimonopoly authorities, which is expected to be provided in Q3 2019, according to Kommersant.
A variety of online resources
The theater networks Cinema Park and Formula Kino, which were part of the group, are excluded from the deal, writes Kommersant: they will be owned solely by A&NN and Era Capital.
Rambler Group still owns a variety of online resources, including the online video site Okko, the web portal Rambler.ru, several online news and content services, and an online travel service. Its total audience reaches 56 million monthly users, Kommersant reported.
The group has just secured exclusive broadcasting rights for the English Premier League in Russia for three seasons starting 2019-20. Content will be distributed through Okko.
In October 2018, Rambler joined forces with Sberbank and UCS to create a multifunction food service platform.
Some observers believe that Sberbank is betting on Rambler to become its main online platform. The bank aims to create a series of “ecosystems,” involving itself in such fields as e-commerce, food services, digital healthcare, digital HR, CRM and neuroscience, to name just examples.
