Elbrus Capital, a major private equity business operating in Russia and neighboring countries, has acquired a minority stake in Cian Group, a major player on the Russian online realty classifieds market.
The deal included both the sale of existing shares and a subscription for new shares. The amount of the investment and the size of the acquired stake have not been disclosed, but Russian business daily Kommersant reported from unnamed sources that Elbrus got 27% of the group.
Cian Group, which includes Cian.ru, Emls.ru and Realty.dmir.ru, has been formed over the past year and a half by PromSvyazCapital (formerly known as Media 3), a fund affiliated to PromSvyazBank. The fund, which initially owned the Dmir.ru portal, acquired Cian.ru in July 2013 and Emls.ru in October of last year.
In 2014, PromSvyazCapital also sold the AiF, Extra-M and CenterPlus newspapers, the fund’s general manager Maxim Melnikov told East-West Digital News. As a result, Front Page (printed press retail and distribution), PK Extra-M (printing plant) and Cian Group have remained its only media properties.
According to LiveInternet, the total monthly Internet audience of Cian.ru and Realty.dmir.ru reached 4 million unique visitors in November 2014, while Emls.ru attracted 290,000 users. In total, the group’s sites are home to over 1.4 million classifieds listings, with tariffs for services dependent on regional location.
The funds advised by Elbrus Capital have portfolio companies in a variety of sectors. Among the high-tech oriented portfolio companies are document storage company OSG Records Management and B2B marketplace B2B-Center.ru. In November of last year, leading jobs site HeadHunter (hh.ru), a property of Mail.ru Group, was acquired by a consortium of investors led by Elbrus Capital.
Sources: PromSvyazCapital, Kommersant.
