26 Feb 2016 07:01
26th February 2016 For immediate release
MAIL.RU GROUP LIMITED
Sale of HeadHunter business to investor consortium led by Elbrus Capital
26th February 2016. 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 10 billion.
The deal was closed on 25th February 2016 with the cash due to be paid in 2 tranches with RUR 5.5bn already received and RUR 4.5bn to be received by 30th April 2016. The second tranche is unconditional.
Mail.Ru Group has been the owner of HeadHunter, the leader in the online recruitment segment in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Azerbaijan, for 7 years. During that time HeadHunter has established its leading position in the Russian market, as its monthly audience has grown from 4 to 19 mln unique users, its resume database has increased from 3 to 19.7 mln, and its vacancy database has grown from 70 to 300 thousand. During that period HeadHunter has entered the Belarus (2010), Azerbaijan (2012), Georgia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan markets, launched a Russian Employer Rating, Wage Database, Clickme advertising service, online Vacancy Fair, online Talent Assessment service and Academy e-learning service. SimilarWeb, a global web analytics platform, ranked HeadHunter on the 3rd place in its «Top 50 sites in the world for Jobs and Employment» website traffic ranking.
In FY 2015 HeadHunter's revenue remained broadly flat, decreasing 1.5% to RUR 3,055 million, and EBITDA decreased 2.5% to RUR 1,506 million respectively with H2 2015 revenue growth of 2.4% to RUR 1,621 million and an EBITDA decline of 2.3% to RUR 795 million.
Mail.Ru Group Investors:
Matthew Hammond
Mail.Ru Group
Phone: +971 505 56 1315
E-mail: hammond@corp.mail.ru
Mail.Ru Group Press:
Madina Tayupova
Phone: +7 926 510 50 21
E-mail: m.tayupova@corp.mail.ru
HeadHunter Press:
Ivan Tyutyundzhi
Phone: +7903 1977001
E-mail: press@hh.ru
Elbrus Capital Press:
Ilya Novokhatsky
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 300 thousand open vacancies and 19.7 million resumes. 500 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 the fifth largest Internet business globally, based on the total time spent (comScore, top 100 properties, December 2015, worldwide).
In line with the 'communitainment' (communication plus entertainment) strategy, the Company is developing 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 three of the major 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 the CIS.
The Company holds a minority equity stake in Qiwi (1.31%) and 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 followed by the worldwide launch to provide communication and entertainment products and services.
About Elbrus Capital
Elbrus Capital is a leading private equity business in Russia and the CIS. Elbrus Capital advises private equity funds which have led over 70 acquisitions since 2007. The funds' total assets under management exceed $1 billion. Key investors in the funds are large international institutional investors and international development institutions.