Page 8 - bne_Tech_12_2018

Leaders
December 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Ex-Gazprombank investor chipped in Russia's CityMobil deal
Former top manager of Russia's third largest bank Gazprombank Vladimir Rumyantsev has invested at least $7.6mn-$7.8mn for 17% stake in taxi ordering service CityMobil, Vedomosti daily reported on December 3 citing the founder of
the company Aram Arakyelyan (still owns 49% in CityMobil).
Earlier in 2018 Russian Internet major Mail.
Ru Group along with MegaFon mobile major invested in taxi-aggregator CityMobil. Now two companies control 15.6% and 17.65% in CityMobil, respectively.
Reportedly, Rumyantsev was the lead investor
in the CityMobil deal through Cyprus-registered WSFIS Global Opportunities Fund. According to Arakyelyan, the fund is a pool of private investors and has "great connections in China, with links to capital."
One of the directors of WSFIS Kurt Santey used to be the manager director of Volga Group investment vehicle related to stoligarch Gennady Timchenko. Santey now is affiliated with Chinese Golden Brick Capital that manages over $2.7bn of assets.
Russian lottery operator S8 continues online expansion with Price.ru buy from Rambler
Armen Sarkissian's Russian lottery monopolist S8 Capital will acquire 100% in Price.ru market- place from internet major Rambler Group, Kommersant daily reported on November 14 citing sources on both sides of the deal. The amount of the deal is not officially disclosed, but could amount to $12mn.
S8 could be an emerging player in the Russian on- line services field. Before Price.ru acquisition, Kom- mersant also reported that the lottery operator is to launch an online car leasing service named Next.Car.
Rambler representative Rafael Abramyan com-
mented to Kommersant that Price.ru was a non-core asset for the group which focuses
on content and streaming services. "Increased competition fueled by recent deals of Yandex with Sberbank, and Mail.ru with [Chinese] Ali- baba have upped the stakes on the e-commerce market and facilitated the sale of Price.ru [to S8 Group]," the commented.
Price.ru is a small players with 5.7mn users in October 2018, as compared to 184mn for ru.aliexpress.com, 130mn for Yandex.Market, and 7.6mn players for newly launched Beru marketplace of Yandex and Sberbank.