In a controversial TV program aired yesterday, Ilya Shcherbovich, the president of the UCP fund which has just acquired a 48% stake in Vkontakte, brought some clarity to his strategy as a major shareholder of Russia’s first social network.
Shcherbovich presented himself as a purely financial investor interested in an asset for which he sees bright prospects. He expressed hopes that his fund’s involvement will reduce the conflicts between shareholders – which have been the rule rather than the exception over the past few years – and that Pavel Durov, the site’s co-founder and CEO, will continue managing the company.
Shcherbovich denied any link between the recent transaction and the ongoing criminal investigation involving Durov – which started long after the deal was agreed upon, he underscored. On the contrary, he said, his fund would hardly expect any benefit from such scandals.
Shcherbovich conceded that the illegal hosting of content on the social network is “a serious issue,” which he hopes to solve together with the other shareholders.
UCP has no plans to acquire Durov’s own 12% stake or Mail.ru Group’s 40%, said Shcherbovich. As for an exit strategy, he did “not rule out an IPO” after “three or four years of development of the company and an increase of its valuation.”
The TV program then displayed a brief interview with former Vkontakte co-owners Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev, who have sold their stake to UCP. Their answers were so perfectly aligned with Shcherbovich’s statements that it seemed they had been prepared by the fund, or at least fine-tuned in cooperation with it.
Russia’s leading social network, Vkontakte – also known as VK.com – served more than 52 million Russian users from 12 to 64 years of age in March 2013, according to TNS.
