This story initially appeared in East-West Digital News, an international news resource covering the Russian innovation scene.
Sberbank, Russia’s state-controlled financial giant, intends to purchase a $170 mio stake in Mail.ru Group, buying a company called MF Technologies, which owns a majority of Mail.Ru’s voting rights, from Gazprombank — another state-owned Russian financial outfit.
Sberbank’s 35% stake in MF Technologies would give it control of one-fifth of the voting rights of Mail.Ru and a 1.8% economic interest in the LSE-listed tech giant. The purchase should be completed by the end of the year. Other investors of MF Technologies include companies controlled by Mail.ru Group co-founder Alisher Usmanov, such as Megafon and USM Holdings.
“A binding agreement is scheduled to be concluded by the end of 2019, after obtaining all necessary permits from corporate governance bodies and regulators,” Sberbank said in a statement.
This is the second major deal between Sberbank and Mail.ru Group. In July, the companies announced their first joint venture project, covering ride-hailing and food delivery activities. The JV, which could be valued at “more than RUR 100 bln” ($1.5 bln), will aim to create “a leading O2O (online-to-offline) platform.” It will leverage Mail.ru Group’s assets Delivery Club and Citymobil, on the one hand, and Sberbank’s Foodplex, on the other.
“Sberbank sees significant potential in joining with Mail.Ru. The bank shares and supports Mail.Ru’s strategy and technological leadership,” Sberbank stated.
Thus, the Sberbank-Mail.ru alliance is taking shape in spite of Sberbank’s historic ties with Yandex, Mail.ru’s arch rival on the Russian tech scene. Since 2009, Sberbank has hold a “golden share” in Yandex, providing the bank with a veto right over significant ownership transactions. Sberbank and Yandex are involved in two joint ventures: Yandex.Money, a major e-wallet and payment service provider, and Yandex Market, which was formed in 2017 in a bid to create a leading e-commerce ecosystem. Sberbank injected $500 mio in this e-commerce JV, which now runs two marketplaces and a price comparison engine.
According to a widespread view among industry observers, Sberbank’s latest initiatives equal a U-turn in the bank’s alliance strategy, or even “an informal declaration of war” with Yandex as their e-commerce joint venture is not bringing the expected results.