Sber is looking for an opportunity to buy Rambler-owned publications in circumvention of the media law

Sberbank announced last week that it would increase its stake in Rambler to 100%. But there is one nuance in the deal: the group includes online publications Lenta.ru, Gazeta.ru, Championat.com, Sekret Firmy and others with a total daily audience of almost 6.9 million people. Under current law, Sberbank cannot become their owner: 43.5% of its share capital belongs to legal entities - non-residents of Russia. But the bank is looking for options to circumvent the ban.

According to RBC , citing sources, Sberbank turned to the presidential administration with a request to evaluate possible models of the transaction, as a result of which it can become the owner of the media. Previously, the credit institution owned 55% of Rambler, the rest was owned by Alexander Mamut. The parties managed to circumvent the restriction that prohibits foreigners from directly or indirectly owning more than 20% in Russian media. Despite the fact that Sberbank had control over the entire Rambler group, Mamut remained the main owner of the publications. But now he is selling his stake and will no longer own the media.

RBC names four possible options in which Sberbank will be able to retain control over the publications of the Rambler group.

• The first option provides that the authorities will make an exception for the credit institution. The article of the Mass Media Law, which restricts foreign participation in Russian media, contains a paragraph about the required list of documents approved by the government. “If we develop this idea, the legislator, for example, can supplement this provision with the government’s right to make exceptions for certain companies and transactions,” Stanislav Danilov, partner at the Pen & Paper Bar Association, told RBC. Fedor Kravchenko, managing partner of the Collegium of Media Lawyers, doubts that such an exception is possible.

• The second option is to find a nominal owner. This practice was encountered in Russia before the introduction of a law limiting the share of foreigners in the Russian media. For example, the German group Burda made the chief accountant of its Russian office Alexander Efimov the main owner of Burda Publishing House JSC (now the JSC has other beneficiaries, also citizens of Russia).

• The third option is to loop the ownership structure. So did, for example, the American media group Conde Nast, publisher of Vogue, GQ and Glamour. The owner of Conde Nast JSC, the founder of the Russian versions of magazines, is Montrose LLC, in which the American Conde Nast has only 18%, and 82% belongs to Lifestyle Media JSC. It, in turn, is 98% owned by the parent JSC Conde Nast, 2% - by the American Conde Nast. As a result, the Russian JSC "Conde Nast" actually belongs to itself.

• The last option is to deprive online publications of the status of mass media. In this case, the need to comply with the norms of the branch law disappears. Sites on the Internet are not required to register as mass media, this decision remains with their owners. But, having abandoned the status of mass media, online publications will automatically lose the rights inherent in journalists: they will not be able to make official requests, receive accreditation for events, and sports media will not be able to make money on advertising bookmakers.