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standard, Massive MIMO and LAA with peak data rates close to 1 Gb/sec. Our joint efforts will make MTS subscribers among the first in Russia to benefit from 5G services.” The companies outlined their plans. The first 5G stations will be rolled out in 2019 and a pre-commercial pilot phase with a 1Gb/s data transfer rate. At the same time the companies will introduce Internet of Things (IoT) capacity for use in industry, agriculture, city infrastructure and utilities. The following year the companies will roll out 5G networks in Russia’s regions. In 2021-2022 the networks will be extended to private networks for smart manufacturing and support for virtual reality applications for commercial use. At the same time the first test zones for “driverless” vehicles will be introduced.
Russia’s leading mobile phone company Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) says it will sell its 18.7% stake in Russian online retailer Ozon Holdings to AFK Sistema for RUB7.9bn ($120mn). MTS paid a total of RUB5.9bn for the stake: RUB2.7bn in 2014 and RUB3.2bn in 2018. As a result of the deal, MTS will have no ownership in Ozon, while Sistema will control 35.6%, of which 16.3% will be through Sistema VC, in which Sistema has an 80% stake. The deal is targeted to close in early March. The payment will be made in 3 installments, with the third paid in July 2021 (a market interest rate will apply). The sale will be at the minimum Ozon valuation, with a delayed payment scheme (plus interest) – suggests c30% premium to MTS investments, reports BCS. “The deal suggests a Rb42bn valuation for 100% Ozon. The price is at the lower end of valuations for the recent deals, in which Sistema and Baring Vostok increased their stakes in Ozon – Kommersant. The price suggests a c30% premium to MTS investments, and a c10% annualized return. Strategy-wise, we were not big believers in the synergies between the carrier and e-tailer,” Maria Sukhanova of BCS Global Markets said in a note.
Swedish investor VNV injected $8.5mn in Russia’s Busfor ticketing service in 2018 In December last year Vostok New Ventures (VNV), a major Swedish investment firm operating internationally, invested $4.5mn in online bus ticketing platform Busfor, in addition to the $4mn it had injected in the company in mid-2018, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN), citing VNV’s latest financial report and exchanges with Busfor’s founder Ilya Yekushevsky. Busfor (previously known as Gillbus) aims to change what has been mostly a grey and offline market so far. Launched in Ukraine in 2010, the company is now headquartered in Poland. It operates in Belarus, Georgia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Thailand, Tanzania, Rwanda, Iceland and several countries of the EU, according to its website. The company claims to partner with more 700 bus transport companies, and hopes to sell more than 10mn tickets in 2019. According to Yekushevsky, the number of sold tickets already tripled in 2018. The average ticket price amounts to $22, with Busfor getting a 15% fee on each sale, reported Kommersant last year, citing company data. The bus transportation market in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union amounts to some $9bn, with online ticket sales accounting for just 2%-5% in 2018. Busfor believes online sales will grow to some 30% by 2022, and aims to control a third of this volume. Since its inception in Ukraine in 2010, Busfor has received financial support from Intel Capital, InVenture Partners and FinSight in 2014, from Ukraine’s Chernovetskyi Investment Group (CIG) in 2015, then from Baring Vostok and Elbrus Capital in 2016.
Russia’s HeadHunter has acquired a 25% stake as a result of a capital injection into Skillaz, a developer of advanced recruitment solutions, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN). The news was reported earlier this week by business daily Vedomosti, which cited exchanges with an official company HeadHunter representative. The funding will be used for recruitment and
119 RUSSIA Country Report March 2019 www.intellinews.com