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MOSCOW, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Alisher
Usmanov's holding company USM said on Thursday it had sold its
stake in top Russian internet group VK to state-run insurer
Sogaz, which is part-owned by a longtime ally of President
Vladimir Putin.
In a statement, USM said it had sold 57.3% of VK's voting
shares for an undisclosed sum.
Following the news Moscow-listed depository receipts in VK
jumped 6.5% on the day, outperforming the benchmark
MOEX index.
VK, which was known as Mail.Ru until its
rebranding in October, did not respond to a request for comment.
Its services include the Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte social
networks - the latter often touted as Russia's answer to
Facebook - and other online brands including grocery delivery
services Delivery Club and Samokat.
Shareholders in Sogaz, which was founded by gas giant
Gazprom, include banker Yuri Kovalchuk, whom Putin has
publicly called a personal friend.
As of Oct. 27, Kovalchuk and his wife controlled around half
of the shares in the Aquila firm which holds 32.3% of Sogaz.
"The transaction is carried out at market terms," Alexei
Miller, who is board chairman at Sogaz and Gazprom CEO, said in
a statement.
(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh, Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Tom
Balmforth; Editing by Maria Kiselyova and Jan Harvey)