Last week Tehnosila, a major Russian e-commerce company that sells home electronics and a variety of other products, announced the full acquisition of e96.ru, another major site specializing in consumer electronics and home appliances.
The details of the transaction have not been disclosed, but DataInsight analyst Fedor Virin has estimated e96’s value at around 500 million rubles (a little less than $7 million, based on the current exchange rate). This modest estimate takes into account the company’s significant debt.
In 2015 e96.ru’s sales revenues amounted to some 3 billion rubles (approximately $48 million at the average exchange rate in 2015), as reported Vedomosti.
Even before the deal, the two companies had already integrated their businesses to a certain extent, notes the business daily. Following the acquisition, Tehnosila aims to assert itself as a leader in multichannel retail “over the next three years,” stated Tehnosila’s general manager Ilya Timchenko.
Tehnosila guarantees “honest prices”
This year, Tehnosila plans to enlarge its assortment from 30,000 to 100,000 items, and to consolidate its position in the Urals and Siberia, where e96.ru has the strongest positions. On its side, 96.ru will be able to develop more actively keeping its own brand, the companies states. e96.ru also plans to start operations in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
e96.ru belonged to Sferiq (IQ One Holdings), an investment company which also owned Utinet.ru and Sotmarket. After a failed attempt to merge the three properties of the group, Utinet.ru and Sotmarket shut down last year amid the crisis.
In September 2014, Tehnosila had acquired Technoshock.ru, another e-commerce company.
Last year the domestic online retail market amounted to some 650 billion rubles (approximately $10.5 billion) as far as physical goods were concerned, according to DataInsight, not including cross-border sales which grew to $3.5 billion. Compared to the previous year, the domestic market grew by 16% in rubles but fell by 28% in dollars, as the Russian currency fell from 38 rubles to 62 rubles per US dollars yearly average in the meantime (see EWDN’s e-commerce report).
