In a bid to expand more into digital economy, Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, is buying Gazprombank’s holding stake in internet company Mail.ru, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Sberbank will buy a 35 percent stake in MF Technologies, which has ownership of 58.9 percent of voting rights for Mail.ru. Gazprombank is a financial group owned by the state.
MF Technologies is a collaboration between Megafon, Rostec, Gazprombank and USM holdings. It was formed in 2018 and it has a 5.2 percent stake in Mail.ru Group, as well as the control of most of its voting rights.
Mail.ru’s CEO Boris Dobrodeyev said the move would help to deepen ties with Sberbank and hopefully bring about more cooperation in the field.
Sberbank said it wants to grow its operations and put pressure on its main rival Yandex. Other Russian banks, like VTB Bank and TCS Group, have also invested in telecom and internet services as demand for traditional banking slows down.
Once the deal is finalized, Sberbank would have 1.82 percent ownership of Mail.ru, along with about 20 percent of the voting rights. Last year, Megafon and USM holdings transferred 54 percent of its voting stake in MF Technologies over to management at Mail.ru, which provided Dobrodeyev and the rest of his team with a voting share of around 32 percent.
Sberbank and Mail.ru previously announced in July that they were going to go right after the Yandex market with taxi and food delivery services. Yandex.Taxi is the market leader in Russia in the ride-hailing market.
“Sberbank as a long-term strategic partner will provide access to significant amounts of funding for new projects at the venture stage of development,” Alfa Bank commented on the move, according to Reuters.
