Actis Systems moves to Vienna
The Austrian investment fund Red-stars.com data AG announced yesterday the acquisition of a stake in the Russian web development company Actis Systems (AS). Competitors estimate the cost of this transaction at $4-4.5 million.

The Red-stars.com data AG fund specializes in investments in Internet companies. Founded in March 2000 in Vienna by entrepreneur Thomas Streimelweger. In the summer of 2000, a blocking stake (25% plus one share) in Red-stars.com data AG was transferred to Siemens.
Actis Systems began operations in 1997. It has offices in Novosibirsk, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Austria. The main activity profile is offshore programming, Internet marketing, e-business technologies.

Rumors that Red-stars.com data was showing interest in Actis Systems (the company was owned by a group of private individuals) appeared on the market almost from the moment the Austrian fund was founded. However, until recently, Red-stars.com data demonstrated ostentatious indifference to the “production” business of AS in Runet. Despite its youth, Red-stars.com data during 2000 managed to invest in the financial portal SkateFN.com, in the investment platform for start-up Internet companies StockAccess.com, as well as in the business-to-business trading system Remedicus.com and etc.
It is now clear that rumors about the Austrians' interest in AS were not groundless. Yesterday, before the official announcement of the investment contract, the president and one of the co-owners of AS Pavel Cherkashin, in a conversation with a Kommersant correspondent, refused to name the amount of the transaction and the share in the company that would go to Red-stars.com data, but emphasized that we are not talking about a controlling stake. However, he said that the investment would be made as a one-time investment, and the amount would be one of the largest ever invested in Runet. Let us recall that the largest transaction - the acquisition of Internet resources of the Agama company by the Internet provider Golden Telecom - is estimated at $25 million.
Representatives of companies competing with AS believe that Pavel Cherkashin has inflated the value of his business. Thus, the president of the A. Partners holding, Alexey Prigozhin, believes that the volume of investments in question cannot greatly exceed the annual income of AS (in 2000 the company plans to earn about $4 million). At the same time, even competitors agree that Red-stars.com data made the right decision, investing not in the construction of another portal, but in a company that creates such portals. First Vice President of Sibintek (a subsidiary of NK YUKOS) Igor Vassiliadis says that the market for network media projects designed for advertising revenues has fallen today, while at the same time services for the development of technologies both for internal networks of enterprises and for interaction are in great demand between companies (electronic exchanges, supply automation systems, etc.). IBS analysts believe that in 2000 the volume of the Russian market for such services will be $12-15 million, and next year it will grow to $20-25 million. However, work in the offshore programming market can bring even greater income: in 2000 its volume is estimated Vesta Eurasia fund amounted to $80 million. Vesta Eurasia board member Andrei Zotov openly admits: “If I were the investors, projects related specifically to offshore programming would receive the money.”

SERGEY Kolyada

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 239 dated December 21, 2000, p. 5