Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia, and Internet holding Mail.ru are facing difficulties in operating the joint venture due to conflicts of interest.
The two companies compete in some areas but do not plan to split the assets of the joint venture, the British edition of the Financial Times reported, citing Lev Khasis, the first deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank.
In March, the Financial Times announced the partners’ plans to split the assets of its joint venture. The partners parted ways to develop their business and cut losses.
Sberbank and Mail.ru Group created a joint venture in December 2019 based on the assets of Delivery Club, Samokat, Citymobil, YouDrive, Foodplex, Performance Group, and the Kitchen in the District service.
In February 2021, it became known that Mail.Ru would create a joint venture with the Chinese fintech giant Ant Group and the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Two joint ventures are created at once, financial and payment.
Mail.Ru, for example, contributes to the project the service Money.Mail.Ru and the VK Pay payment system, USM Holding – the Round bank and the InPlat payment system.
The news was called another hint of friction within another joint venture, just between Sberbank and Mail.Ru. Together they develop Delivery Club and Citymobil taxis, but in terms of payment systems they have gone apart – Sber has its banking service, as well as YuMoney – the former Yandex.Money, which the bank got after its divorce from the IT giant.
