Mail.ru Group, Megafon, RDIF and Alibaba Group are preparing the largest deal in the Russian Internet market

MegaFon, Mail.ru Group, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Alibaba Group create a joint venture worth about $2 billion - AliExpress Russia. AliExpress Russia will include the assets of Alibaba Group in Russia, as well as the group's cross-border operations - in particular, the international trading platform AliExpress and the Russian b2c-platform Tmall, Kommersant writes .

RDIF and Alibaba will invest in a single holding structure through the purchase of its preferred shares, and the fund will also buy out a part of ordinary shares from a Chinese company. MegaFon will transfer to Alibaba Group in exchange for a 24% stake in the joint venture a 10% stake in Mail.ru Group. The contribution of Mail.ru Group itself to the joint venture will be the marketplace for the sale of goods from China Pandao, money, as well as services for the integration of AliExpress Russia with the ecosystem of the Internet company.

The joint venture will operate in all segments of e-commerce, including international and local. AliExpress Russia and Mail.ru Group will enter into a strategic cooperation agreement, which includes, among other things, the exchange of traffic and “product initiatives”.

AliExpress Russia will gain access to the Mail.ru Group audience in social networks, instant messengers, email and online games. At the same time, the participants of the joint venture declare that the new company will support small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation through access to an “ecosystem that allows local entrepreneurs to sell goods in their own country and abroad.” More than 600 million consumers from China, Southeast Asia, Turkey, Europe, India and other countries, follows from the message of the partners.