“We are considering an initial public offering to possibly take place in 2012 or 2013,” said Vkontakte.ru founder Pavel Durov in an exchange with Russian online publication Gazeta.ru (English version), following informal statements made on Tuesday at a tech conference in Munich.
Although no discussions are being held currently with Mail.ru Group, Yandex or Google, a “small stake of around 3%” could be sold before the IPO, “in order to increase the company’s valuation,” Durov said.
A leading Russian Internet group listed on the London Stock Exchange, Mail.ru Group already owns a 39.9% stake in Vkontakte, but Durov ruled out the possibility of a Mail.ru integration several times last year. Among other Vkontakte.ru shareholders are Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and members of his family as well as Lev Leviev, in addition to Durov himself.
Rumors of a possible Vkontakte IPO in 2012 had emerged in June of last year, when Bloomberg revealed the company’s early discussions with investment banks on this matter.
Vkontakte’s could potentially be valued at up to $3.75 billion, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported, although a source close to the Mail.ru group denied such a valuation could even be considered.
Vkontakte.ru, which means ‘In contact’ in Russian, was designed as a Facebook clone when it was launched in 2006, but important differences now distinguish the two websites.
Vkontakte stands as Russia’s leading social network with a monthly reach of 25 million Russian users between the ages of 12 and 54 as measured last November, according to TNS. The site counts more than 150 million registered users worldwide.
Vkontakte’s main Russian competitor is Odnoklassniki, with 20.5 million users per month according to TNS. Facebook lags far behind with just 5 million active users in Russia registered last year.
