22 May 2012 10:16
22 May 2012 For immediate release
MAIL.RU GROUP LIMITED
GDR Buying Programme
Dubai, May 22, 2012. Mail.Ru Group Limited (LSE: MAIL), one of the largest Internet companies in the high-growth Russian-speaking Internet market, reports that as announced on 25th October 2011 the Group undertook a GDR buying programme during Q4 2011. The programme is up to $35m. During Q4 2011 the Group spent $20.5m buying 651,534 GDR's at an average price of $31.5. During 2012 the Group will continue the programme. The GDRs acquired by Mail.Ru Employee Benefit Trustees Limited ("the Trust") under the GDR buying programme will be held by the Trust to be used over the lifetime of the options in order to cover a part of the employee and director options granted under the incentive plan.
Ends
For further information please contact:
Investor Relations Contacts:
Matthew Hammond
Managing Director Mail.Ru Group
Phone: +971 505 56 1315
Email: ir@corp.mail.ru
Press Contacts:
Ksenia Chabanenko
PR Director Mail.Ru Group (Russia)
Phone: +7 495 725 6359 / +7 916 090 6626
Email: ks@corp.mail.ru
Notes to Editors
About Mail.Ru Group
Mail.Ru Group (founded in 1998) is a leading Internet company in the high-growth Russian-speaking Internet markets (Russia is today Europe's the largest Internet market measured by number of users, ComScore, September 2011). Mail.Ru Group's sites reach approximately 84 per cent of Russian Internet users on a monthly basis (ComScore, December 2011) and the Company is the world's fifth largest Internet business, based on page views (ComScore, December 2011).
Having the Communitainment (Communications + Entertainment) strategy the Company is moving rapidly to build an integrated communication and entertainment platform. The Company operates two of the three (TNS, December 2011) largest Russian language online social networking sites (Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir (or "My World")). The Company also operates the two largest Instant Messaging ("IM") networks in Russia (Mail.Ru Agent and ICQ), Russia's leading email service and Russia's second largest Internet portal Mail.ru (based on daily and monthly unique users, TNS, December 2011), and the Company operates Russia's largest online games platform.
The Company holds strategic minority equity stakes in VKontakte (a 39.99 per cent stake) and Qiwi, formerly OE Investments (21.35 per cent interest). The Company also holds small minority stakes in international Internet companies including Facebook, Zynga and Groupon as well as a number of small venture capital investments in various Internet companies in Russia and Ukraine.