Why does avito do not want to sell VK, what to do with currency in banks and how patriotism blooms in Telegram

The topic of release is how Avito is sold

The main contender for the purchase of Avito ads service, one of the most profitable IT companies in Russia, is considered VK. But, as The Bell found out, the owner of Avito, the Dutch Prosus, is trying with all his might to find another, more distant buyer from the state. There are interests, but a little chance of selling someone else. The transaction with VK is supported by the presidential administration, and deputy Anton Gorelkin comes to the Avito itself with the next bill.

What's happened?

In May, the Dutch investment company Prosus (part of the South African Naspers investmentchold) announced that she put up her Russian asset for sale-the Avito online service service. Prosus belongs to 100% of Avito shares. Last week, the media talked about the two main applicants for the purchase - VK and businessman Vladimir Potanin. Of these, the most likely buyer, two interlocutors The Bell then called VK.

But, as The Bell found out, the owner of Avito is trying to avoid a deal with VK and is actively looking for other buyers. This was told by six sources familiar with the course of negotiations.

Bargaining at a price

The main reason is money. Avito has always been one of the most profitable IT companies. For six months that ended in September 2021, the company's revenue increased by 67%, to $ 313 million, and the profitability of sales was 48%, follows from the latest Prosus report. For the entire 2021, the revenue of the Russian legal entity of the service amounted to 42.6 billion rubles, net profit - 14.4 billion rubles.

VK for the transaction estimates Avito at 65–80 billion rubles, or $ 1.2–1.5 billion at the current rate, says one of The Bell's interlocutors. Prosus, according to him, initially wanted to sell the asset much more - for $ 4 billion (about 213 billion rubles). Such a scatter is not surprising. For comparison:

• Back in May, Bloomberg, citing analysts, cited Avito at $ 6 billion (about 320 billion rubles at the current rate);
• According to the analyst of Raiffeisenbank Sergey Libin, Avito could cost 500-600 billion rubles before the “special operation”, after its beginning - 200-300 billion, and taking into account the recent initiative of the deputy Anton Gorelykin, no more than 100 billion.

The organizer of the transaction by the seller is Morgan Stanley, says one of The Bell's interlocutors. At first, several large Russian businessmen and companies received proposals for buying Avito, but none of them was ready to buy at such a price. It did not suit Vladimir Potanin, adds another source from among potential buyers.

Prosus is in a hurry to conclude a deal, but the company is not ready to sell cheaply, another interlocutor of The Bell argues: “They turned out to be hostages of their own profitability.” But $ 4 billion is no longer a market price, another source from among the applicants for the purchase of the service believes. “Based on the current market rating at 4-6 EBITDA, the company should cost between $ 1-2 billion,” he said.

The issue of price is still being discussed, and it is too early to talk about specific figures, says another interlocutor The Bell, who knows about the negotiations. According to him, on Avito "there are at least 2-3 potential buyers." Among them are “financial investors who are ready to redeem the asset.”

Another interlocutor The Bell on the market said that several funds are ready to unite in a consortium to compete for the asset. One of the major Russian funds confirmed The Bell his participation in the struggle for Avito.

“This is a big deal, and now few, except VK, can conduct it himself,” says one of the interlocutors. VK herself really wants to get out of this race as a winner - and puts pressure on the market.

Political argument

For VK, buying Avito is a fundamental question. Together with Avito, the buyer receives Cash Cow - an uninterrupted profit source, says The Bell's interlocutor in the market.

In addition, for VK this is a good opportunity to attract a new one and keep the old audience. In September, Avito had 92 million active users per month. The VK group itself recently overcame the mark of 100 million monthly users, the head of the company Vladimir Kiriyenko (son of the First Deputy Head of AP Sergey Kiriyenko) recently said at the PMEF).

VK will apply all its lobbying resource to win, all the interlocutors of The Bell in the market do not doubt. The deal is already actively supported by the presidential administration, three of them say. The last initiative of the deputy Anton Gorekina is associated with this in the market. In mid-June, he introduced a bill to the State Duma prohibiting foreigners to own more than 20% in Russian announcements of ads. The law was written specifically for Avito, Gorekin did not hide.

But the sale of VK for Prosus can be a problem. VK, the control over which from the end of 2021 is divided by SOGAZ Yuri Kovalchuk and Gazprombank, is closely connected with the state, and its CEO under sanctions. For Prosus, all this can be a problem. “This is a company with huge capitalization and public companies selling in“ unfriendly ”countries,” explains one of The Bell's interlocutors. Avito top management can also be afraid of absorption by VK and loss of effectiveness, he said.

The position of the main shareholder on the transaction is completely not clear, the interlocutor, close to one of the applicants for the asset, states. Another does not exclude that the South African Naspers can still change his best to sell the asset - taking into account the fact that this country can be attributed to “friendly” Russia, it is impossible to exclude such probability entirely.

The VK representative refused to comment, Prosus and Avito at the time of publication did not respond to The Bell's request.

What am I to me?

IT companies watching the fight are sure that the market will suffer the most strongly from the sale of Avito VK-especially if non-market methods of competition will be used in the future. If the VK does not put pressure on the market, there will be alternative customers at once, one of them argues.

Social networks

How patriotic channels capture Telegram

The times when Roskomnadzor tried to block Telegram, and the team of Pavel Durov heroically repelled the attacks is a long time in the past. Now Telegram is one of the few social networks that has not yet been blocked and not recognized as extremist in Russia. TEELGRAM coexist in the channels of the media blocked in Russia and hundreds of channels created to support the “special operation”. The audience of the main wirewalls is already measured by millions. The special correspondent of The Bell Irina Pankratova studied which channels have grown since the beginning of all, and found a lot of interesting things:

• How Telegram grew up in war and locks

• How Chechen Telegram works

• What an anonymous channel has become the main Rupor of the War

• And, of course, who stands behind the main wirepan, and at the same time - and for the largest new net in the cart

The full text of the investigation is on our site .

Payments

What to do with currency in a bank account

Over the past two weeks, the situation for currency owners in Russia has radically worsened. Not only do many banks, due to sanctions, have already been disconnected from SWIFT, so the remaining ones did not begin to introduce commissions for storage of currency in the accounts. Since June 23, Tinkoff introduced a commission of 1% per month for servicing card accounts with a balance above 1000 cu In dollars, euros, pounds of sterling and Swiss francs. Moreover, the commission will be debited daily. Raiffeisenbank and Rosbank were also introduced the commission for storing currency on the accounts, but there it is much lower. From July 4, the “Tinkoff Investment” is introduced for storing currency in the Brokera account: the same 1% per month for an amount of more than $ 10 thousand. In addition, this week it became known that Russian banks began to massivelyrefuse the transfer of currency within the country.

What to do if the currency on the account appeared after March 9 and you can’t cash it out without converting into rubles? There are not many recipes:

• If the bank still allows you to make a SWIFT transmission, you can send the currency to a foreign account and cash out there. Russians can now open an account abroad in Armenia, Georgia, Serbia, Kazakhstan (you have to go there for this).
• You can scatter the currency on the accounts. If you are a Tinkoff client, now there is no way to transfer the currency directly in the bank, but you can send it with converting into rubles and immediately back. This will happen automatically and without commission losses, so how much currency you will send, so much the addressee will receive.
• And you can - bring it to cryptocurrency. This option is again relevant for Tinkoff customers. Thanks to the bank’s service from the previous point, Tinkoff Clients can still buy cryptocurrency on the exchange through a P2P board. How it works: you need to create an account on the exchange (for example, Binance), then select the P2P purchase (you can buy USDT as the most popular stablecoin). Then choose a currency (euro or dollar) and payment method (Tinkoff). Next, you need to conduct a deal according to the instructions - send your currency to another exchange offered by the Exchange and receive cryptocurrency to the wallet of the exchange. Then it can be brought to a foreign card or to a “cold” crypto -coolant for long -term storage (about how it works, we talked in detail here ).