17 Nov 2014 16:02
17th November 2014 For immediate release
MAIL.RU GROUP LIMITED
Sale of Headhunter business to investor consortium led by Elbrus Capital
17th November 2014. Mail.Ru Group Limited (LSE: MAIL, hereinafter referred as "the Company" or "the Group"), today announces the sale of 100% of HeadHunter shares to an investor consortium led by Elbrus Capital for RUR 9.85 billion.
The deal is expected to close in Q1 2015 and is subject to third-party approval.
Mail.Ru Group has been the owner of HeadHunter, the leader in the online recruitment segment in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Azerbaijan, for 6 years. During that time HeadHunter has established its leading position in the Russian market, as its monthly audience has grown from 4 to 14 mln unique users, its resume database has increased from 3 to 14.5 mln, and its vacancy database has grown from 70 to 360 thousand. During that period HeadHunter has also entered the Belarus (2010) and Azerbaijan (2012) markets and launched a Russian Employer Rating, Wage Database, Clickme advertising service and online Vacancy Fair.
In 2013 HeadHunter's revenue and EBITDA was RUR 2,756 million and RUR 1,357 million respectively. During the first 9 months of 2014 HeadHunter's revenue and EBITDA was RUR 2,325 million and 1,183 million respectively.
Dmitry Grishin, Co-Founder and CEO of Mail.Ru Group: "We are grateful to the HeadHunter team for the great job they've been doing these 6 years. Thanks to their efforts during that time the product has made a serious leap in quality, its popularity growing manifold. We wish much success to the team."
Dmitri Krukov, Managing Partner at Elbrus Capital: "HeadHunter is the absolute leader in the online recruitment market, the company boasts a great management team that has impressive track record of growth and success. We believe that the online HR solutions market in Russia and other countries presents great opportunities. Our experience and our investors' capital will provide new opportunities for HeadHunter to implement its strategy of further technology development (including mobile technologies), launching new products and services, and entering new markets."
Mikhail Zhukov, Managing Director at HeadHunter: "We are grateful to Mail.Ru Group management team for supporting our development and for our collaboration during all these years. With our new shareholders HeadHunter is in for the new stage of development. I am certain that this step will be very positive for our clients who develop their businesses and our users who build their careers with the help of HeadHunter."
Mail.Ru Group Investor Relation Contacts:
Matthew Hammond
Mail.Ru Group
Phone: +971 505 56 1315
E-mail: hammond@corp.mail.ru
Mail.Ru Group Press Contacts:
Ksenia Chabanenko
Phone: +7 916 0906626
E-mail: ks@corp.mail.ru
HeadHunter Press Contacts:
Ivan Tyutyundzhi
Phone: +7903 1977001
E-mail: press@hh.ru
Elbrus Capital Press Contacts:
Ilya Novokhatsky, DNA Communications
Phone: +7 (925) 518 1798
E-mail: ilya@dnapr.ru
Notes to announcement:
Headhunter's revenue and EBITDA numbers presented herein are prepared based on principles used for the segment financial information of the Company's consolidated operations, i.e. do not include certain adjustments which would be required under IFRS. The accounting principles used in segment financial reporting are described in more detail in the Company's prior announcements.
About HeadHunter
HeadHunter is the leading Russian online recruitment company founded in 2000 and operating in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The company's largest asset is hh.ru website owning the database that comprises 360 thousand open vacancies and 14.5 million resumes. 600 thousand users receive job interview invitations via hh.ru every week.
About Mail.Ru Group
Mail.Ru Group (LSE:MAIL, listed since November 5, 2010) is a leading Internet company in Europe and is the sixth largest Internet business globally, based on the total time spent (comScore, September 2014).
In line with the "communitainment" (communication plus entertainment) strategy, the Company is moving rapidly to build an integrated communications and entertainment platform. The Company owns Russia's leading email service and one of Russia's largest internet portals, Mail.Ru. The Company operates all three of the Russian language social networks, Vkontakte (VK), Odnoklassniki (OK) and Moi Mir (My World), and Russia's largest online games business. The Company's portfolio also includes Mail.Ru Agent and ICQ - two instant messaging services popular in Russia and CIS.
The Company holds an equity stake in Qiwi (1.31%). The Company also holds a number of small venture capital investments in various Internet companies in Russia, Ukraine and Israel. In November 2013. The Company launched My.com in the US and later globally to provide communication and entertainment products and services in non-Russian speaking countries.
About Elbrus Capital
Elbrus Capital is a leading Russia and CIS-focused private equity business. Elbrus Capital advises private equity funds which have led over 70 acquisitions since 2007. The funds' total assets under management exceed US$1 billion. Elbrus Capital focuses on leading companies looking for further growth and consolidation opportunities. Key investors in the funds are large international institutional investors and international development institutions.