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bne November 2020 Companies & Markets I 17
At the same time the continuingly falling interest rates keep creating new sections of the population that can afford to buy an apartment. A rule of thumb suggests that for each 1% the CBR cuts off the prime interest rates makes a mortgage affordable for another million Russians.
“The housing market, both in Russia as a whole and in the Moscow region in particular, is characterised by low per-capita levels of housing stock compared with both developed and developing economies,” Samolet said. “At the same time,
a high degree of depreciation has been observed in housing stock in Russia. Against a background of favourable mortgage rates and an increase in new housing, this is contributing to a gradual increase in the affordability of housing in the country. As a leading player in the mass-market segment, Samolet is able to capitalise on these trends in a meaningful way.”
As a later entrant into the business Samolet has adopted a slightly different business model where is seeks out partners
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Mail.Ru buying spree: My.Games invests in 3 game studios in 3 weeks
East West Digital News in Moscow
My.Games Venture Capital (MGVC), an investment firm affiliated to LSE-listed Mail.ru Group, has just acquired a majority stake in Russian game publisher Deus Craft, reports Rusbase, as cited by East-West Digital News (EWDN).
MGVC intends to put up to $49.1mn to acquire 51.16% of the company, including an immediate payment of $14.1mn and potential additional payments totalling $35mn, depending on the Deus Craft’s further results. The company has set the goal to generate $15mn in monthly revenues in Q1 2021.
Registered in Cyprus, Deus Craft has more than 70 employees split between offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. Its greatest hit so far has been Grand Hotel Mania, a game where you must show special abilities to build hotels for travellers who “want to take a break from the daily grind
or do something fancy.” The move is coming just weeks after two previous deals. In mid-September, MGVC teamed up with Finland’s Aii Corporation to invest in a Hypemasters, a studio founded by a Russian team but headquartered in the USA. The deal amounted to some $5mn, according to media reports.
and jointly develops land plots. Rather than just buy land,
the company often approaches the owners of land – entrepre- neurs, companies and institutions – and offers to develop their land for mutual benefit. For example some companies in and around Moscow own sizable plots of land, but as real estate development is a non-core activity they have done nothing with their land. Samolet comes in and develops the land in
a partnership with the owner, which also reduces the up-front payment for land ownership.
The company further reduces its overheads and need for lots of working capital by outsourcing construction and installation works, which keep capital needs down to
a minimum and the projects financially self-contained.
“[This model] makes it possible to minimise operational risks, ensure a competitive cost structure and finish construction ahead of schedule while maintaining flexibility during market downturns,” Samolet said.
Last week MGVC announced an investment in Russian studio Reaction Games. The amount of the deal was not disclosed, but MGVC said it received “a minority stake with the option to buy a controlling stake.” Reaction Games was founded earlier this year as a mobile business unit of Alternativa Games, an established Russian game publisher (‘Tanki Online’). Reaction Games is currently launching ‘Days After,’ a mobile game about surviving in a zombie apocalypse, with support from MGVC.
MGVC (previously known as MRGV) is the investment arm of Mail.Ru’s international video games brand My.Games, launched in 2019 to run all the group’s gaming projects.
MGVC says it has “evaluated more than 1,000 partnership applications and closed 30 deals over the past three years, including consolidations for major studios like Bit.Games, Swag Masha, Panzerdog, BeIngame, and others.” These studios have become “leading revenue-generating titles for My.Games.” For example, Swag Masha has increased its revenue 1.7-fold since Q3 2019, with its game ‘Love Sick: Interactive Stories’ becoming a top-5 mobile title for My.Games as of Q2 2020.
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