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Alisher Usmanov's USM sells 57% of the votes of VK (formerly Mail.ru Group) to the Sogaz group

USM of Alisher Usmanov leaves the capital of VK, formerly known as Mail.Ru Group - the holding sells a share of the company in 57.3% to the Sogaz group, the main shareholders of which are the co-owner of Bank Rossiya Yuri Kovalchuk and his family (32, 3%) and Gazprom (21.2%). The approval of the deal is reported on the Sogaz website.

The website says that the board of directors has approved "a 45% stake in the capital of MF Technologies JSC, which controls 57.3% of VK's votes." JSC "MF Technologies" is a joint venture, the main task of which is the implementation of projects in the field of the digital economy. Previously, this share belonged to USM through MegaFon. According to Kommersant, USM confirmed that the deal took place, but did not specify its value.

According to the founder of the holding Alisher Usmanov, participation in VK has become an important and decisive part of USM's development. The holding decided to withdraw from the company's capital at the peak of its indicators in terms of audience and financial metrics. General Director and co-owner of USM Ivan Streshinsky said that now the holding's strategy will be focused on the "green agenda" - it, says Streshinsky, is being implemented in the mining and metallurgical enterprises Metalloinvest and Udokanskaya Med.

Thus, Gazprom will control the absolute majority of VK's voting shares through structures connected in one way or another with it, Kommersant notes. Alexey Miller, the chairman of the board of directors of Sogaz and concurrently the head of Gazprom, said that participation in the capital of VK in the group is considered a promising strategic investment based on the "great development potential of VK". He stressed that there will not be a single controlling legal entity between the shareholders of MF Technologies JSC, and the new shareholder will operate on “purely market principles”.

In mid-November, Sberbank sold its 36% stake in MF Technologies JSC to Gazprombank - the deal was worth 12.8 billion rubles. Thus, the subsidiaries of Gazprom already own 81% of the shares of the organization that controls social networks VK and Odnoklassniki, taxi services Citymobil and delivery of products Samokat. In addition, Gazprom owns the Gazprom-Media holding, which is headed by the former head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov - in this post he was engaged in blocking Telegram in 2019. Gazprom-Media, in turn, owns the video hosting Rutube, and on November 29 launched the social network Yappy, the domestic analogue of the popular short vertical video service TikTok.

Alisher Usmanov's USM sells 57% of the votes of VK (formerly Mail.ru Group) to the Sogaz group