Why Wildberries unite with the outdoor advertising operator, support for war in Russia is growing and who owns the "kitchen in the area"

The largest online marketplace Wildberries in Russia unexpectedly announced the unification with the largest outdoor advertising operator-the RUSS group. Why is this deal we need and whether Wildberries mean new co -owners - it is unclear. In 2019, the financing of the creation of the RUSS group was attributed to Suleiman Kerimov, and among its shareholders, Igor Shuvalov, manager of the assets of Igor appeared.

• Wildberries announced an association with the largest outdoor advertising operator in Russia, the RUSS group, a modest message in its telegram channel, published in a strange time to announce such a major deal-after 20:00.
• In the Wildberries report, the association of the largest online marketplace with the OFLINA OPERATION OPERATION is not very convincing. The meaning of the transaction, according to the release, is in the “Creating a modern high-tech digital trading platform” and “New player in financial, media, trade and industrial sectors, as well as in areas of Internet technologies, logistics, retail and advertising”. This platform should become a "unique and affordable tool for promoting goods for millions of representatives of medium, small and microbusiness." The geography of the project, the release says, will cover not only Russia and the “countries of the former CIS”, but also the “Global South Countries” with a population of 5.8 billion people.
• Not a word is said about the terms of the transaction in the press release. In what form the association passed and who now owns the united company is unclear. But RBC with reference to the source writes that the founder of Wildberries Tatyana Bakalchuk will become the general director of the united company, and the head of the RUSS Robert Mirzoyan will become the chief executive director. Which of them will be more important is unclear.
• Wildberries, according to SPARK, continues to belong to Tatyana Bakalchuk by 99%, another 1% to her husband. With RUSS, the situation is more complicated.
• The largest outdoor advertising operator in Russia was founded in the early 1990s under the name "Aprus City"; In 2000, the company bought the holding of the American media Magnate Rupert Murdok News Corp. And renamed News Outdoor. In 2008, Murdok said he wanted to sell his Russian business. “The more success we will achieve, the more the chance that we will steal it. We will sell it better now, ”the billionaire explained. In 2011, News Outdoor was sold to the consortium of Russian investors led by VTB Capital and renamed the Russian outor. Later, VTB Capital sold 25% of the shares from its package by the French group JCDECAUX.
• In 2019, the RUSS Outdoor stake was bought by a competing Vera-Olympus operator, which in the late 2010s began to buy assets in the outer advertising market. The buyer in terms of business was 5.5 times smaller than the seller. But, according to RBC, he had funding from the family of billionaire Suleiman Kerimov ( $ 10.7 billion). The official owners of Vera-Olympus are the brothers Levan and Robert Mirzoyany, as well as the State Duma deputy Berkhan Barakhoev. Their expansion did not stop at the purchase of RUSS - after Mirzoyani became its shareholders, RUSS bought its main competitor - Gallery in early 2022. For two they belonged to 50% of the market.
• Robert Mirzoyan denied the participation of Kerimov’s participation in financing transactions. But in them, the VTB bank participated in them in one way or another - all the companies through which the RUSS shareholders own the asset are pledged by the bank.
• In January 2022, a month before the start of the war, the RUSS group had another interesting new shareholder. 30% of the RUSS group LLC Steenn was owned by the structure of the former employee of the government apparatus, Sergei Kotlyarenko, managing the assets of the former first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov, a longtime and close friend and business partner Suleiman Kerimov. Kotlyarenko gained wide fame when Alexei Navalny discovered that 10 apartments were recorded on him in the Moscow skyscraper on the Kotelnikiye embankment, whose real owner was Shuvalov. But since September 2022, the share of Kotlyarenko, according to the Base of Spark, passed to the formal owner of Russ Outdor Grigory Sadoyan.

What am I to me?

The significance of Wildberries for the Russian market, Russian consumers and the Russian economy is difficult to overestimate. Through the marketplace in 2023, goods were sold 2.5 trillion rubles - this is more than 5% of all retail trade in Russia. Understand what a deal with Russian means, why it is called a “association” and whether this means that Wildberries are changing the shareholders is still impossible. But the announcement sounds very intriguing.

Signals

Support for war in Russia is growing

The analytical center RE: Russia analyzed the spring polls of public opinion in Russia conducted by different organizations, and came to the conclusion: among Russian respondents, support for a “special military operation” is growing. People more often say that they support offensive actions in Ukraine and less often - the transition to peaceful negotiations. Experts explain this to the “general improvement of social moods” and increased confidence in the advantage of Russia on the battlefield. They note that the share of respondents who are ready to support the second wave of mobilization is growing - and this shift can lead the Kremlin to the idea that the costs of this step will not be as large as previously considered.

MONEY

Who owns the "kitchen in the area"

Today it became known about the detention of the general director of the delivery service “Kitchen in the area”. The company was in the focus of a criminal case - more than 120 people in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan were poisoned by the ordered salad with beans. But the "cuisine" is interesting in itself. Before the war, the delivery service belonged to Sberbank, and after - its owners, as in many other companies of the Sberbank ecosystem, hidden to protect them from sanctions. We figured out who the scandalous service now owns.

Foreigners in Russia

"Leroy Merlin" will turn into "Lemana Pro"

The French network of construction stores "Leroy Merlen" will change the name in Russia and will be called "Lemana Pro". The company will also refuse a green -colored company in the logo. Rebranding will be completed by 2025.

The original name "Leroy Merlin" consisted of the names of the founders of Adolf Leroy and Rose Merlin. As explained in the company, the new name “Leman Pro” reflects its “key priorities”. In March 2023, the French ADEO group of companies, which owns the Leroy Merlin network, announced plans to transfer to the Russian company to local management. A year later, as part of this transition, the Russian Leroy Merlin Vostok was renamed Le Montlid.

INVESTMENTS

Inflation in the USA is reduced. Is it time for investors to buy bonds?

For investors who operate on the Western market, the key event on June 12 was the released inflation data, the performance of the head of the Fed, Jerome Powell based on the results of a meeting of the Central Bank and the publication of Dot Plot (betting) of the members of the Federal Committee on Open Investment (FOMC), and not the sanctions against Mosbirzhi. These data pleased the market. Is it worth the investors to hurry to buy bonds while the bets are still high, and which - read in the materialof The Bell Investments .