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EBITDA rose by 12.8% to 15bn rubles ($199.02mn), while the EBITDA margin fell by 20 b.p. to 19.9%. The company’s Q4 2022 revenue increased by 13.9% year-on-year to 75.7bn rubles ($1bn).
Fix Price is the biggest chain of low fixed price stores in Russia. As of December 31, 2022, the retail chain operated 5,663 stores in Russia and CIS countries.
9.2.8 Telecoms corporate news
Russia’s monopoly gas exporter Gazprom is planning to use its structures to acquire Megafon, one of the country's leading mobile operators. Six separate sources familiar with the market told The Bell about the proposed deal. According to one of them, Gazprom Media is the likely suitor for the telecoms network.
Megafon is one of the hottest assets currently up for sale. The mobile operator is currently majority-owned by oligarch Alisher Usmanov’s USM, which in 2021 sold the VK internet holding (VK is the former Mail.ru Group, and includes the popular VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks). VK was purchased by Gazprom Media and the Sogaz insurance company. The latter is co-owner of a rival media holding, the National Media Group, which is controlled by Yury Kovalchuk, another Russian oligarch and friend of President Vladimir Putin.
In late January, Usmanov’s newspaper Kommersant reported that USM was seeking a buyer for Megafon. The newspaper identified Rostelecom (Russia’s largest telecoms company, which counts Kovalchuk among its major shareholders) as the most likely bidder. According to Kommersant, Gazprom was more interested in a rival network, Vimpelkom’s Beeline.
Between them, Kovalchuk’s National Media Group and Gazprom Media control a huge share of the Russian media market. They have full or partial ownership of the biggest assets in that sector: TV channels, film and television production companies, radio stations, magazines, news websites, entertainment resources and production studios. Kovalchuk and Gazprom’s media structure are joint owners of VK, one of the biggest tech corporations in the Russian market. They are now looking to reinforce their position in that market by acquiring one of the leading mobile operators.
Usmanov is steadily divesting from his businesses in Russia and retiring from the media market.
The sale of the mobile operator Vimpelcom (Beeline brand) to Russian management was stopped at the government level, Kommersant reported on January 27.
171 RUSSIA Country Report March 2023 www.intellinews.com