The controlling shareholder of the online auction Molotok.ru, Allegro Group, owned by the South African media group Naspers, decided to close it. This was reported by the Vedomosti newspaper, citing two sources close to Mail.Ru Group, another shareholder of the project.

One of the sources told the newspaper that the closure of the online auction could be announced as early as today. A source close to the competing company Molotok.ru also heard about the closure of the project, the publication notes.

As a source close to Mail.Ru Group clarified, the decision to close the project was made not by the Russian holding, but by Naspers. Mail.Ru Group is a minority shareholder of the online auction, although representatives of the holding refused to name the exact shares of the partners. Vedomosti notes that Naspers also owns a large stake in Mail.Ru Group - the South African holding owns 28.9% of the capital and 12.5% of the company's votes.

A Naspers representative did not respond to a request for comment.

According to a source close to Mail.Ru Group, Molotok has long lacked its own funds for development, so Naspers periodically provided it with loans. Currently, Molotok employs 35–40 people, but after the project is closed, they will most likely be fired, the source added.

He added that Naspers has a more successful investment in Russian Internet commerce - the Avito.ru service, whose revenue in 2014 amounted to 4.3 billion rubles.

The Internet auction “Molotok.ru” was launched in 1999 and for a long time was the only and largest player in this market in Russia. In 2007, experts estimated the project at $5–10 million, subject to advertising support from Mail.ru. According to a source close to Mail.Ru Group, last year Molotok’s revenue was about $3 million, operating profit was about $300 thousand, but all this profit was eaten up by payments on loans to Naspers. According to the Molotok.ru website, it is visited by more than 250,000 people a day.

The media reported the closure of the online auction “Molotok.ru”