TCS.L Regulatory News (TCS)

TCS Group Holding Plc appoints Oliver Hughes and Pavel Fedorov as Co-CEOs, enhancing its executive team to capture new growth opportunities in Russia and abroad

Limassol, Cyprus. November 8, 2021 - In light of the continued rapid growth of its Russian business, the launch of multiple new business lines and expansion into Southeast Asia, TCS Group Holding PLC (TCS LI) ("Tinkoff Group", the "Company"), the provider of online financial and lifestyle services via its Tinkoff SuperApp, announces the appointment of Oliver Hughes and Pavel Fedorov as co-CEOs of Tinkoff Group.

Oliver Hughes, who has successfully steered the Company as a CEO for the last 15 years and remains committed and is excited to be taking Tinkoff to the next level, will be joined as Co-CEO of the Company by Pavel Fedorov. Pavel currently serves as a Board member of TCS Group Holding PLC and has been advising the Company on its international strategy. Prior to joining the Board of the Company, Pavel had a long career in telecoms, media and technology investment banking, spending a total of 13 years with Morgan Stanley in London and Moscow. For the last 10 years (with a one-year break in 2012 in the civil service as a Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia) he worked in senior executive positions at Norilsk Nickel and Rosneft, LSE-listed natural resource companies.

As Co-CEOs of TCS Group Holding, Oliver and Pavel will work together to grow the Russian business, maintain strong profitability, expand Tinkoff's business into new geographies, develop new products and technological competences and enhance value for shareholders. Leveraging on his experience, Oliver will focus on maintaining high financial discipline of the Company, drive organisational development, talent management, cutting-edge business operations, product launches and technological leadership of Tinkoff both in Russia and internationally. As the scope of business of Tinkoff continues to expand, the main focus areas for Pavel will be strategic development of the Company, enhancing the competences of Tinkoff in building lasting financial and strategic partnerships and entering new attractive markets and geographies.

The move will significantly strengthen the executive bandwidth of the rapidly growing organization, and the two Co-CEOs will work in tandem using their complementary skills to capture the many opportunities that lie ahead of the Company in Russia and globally. Under the skillful management of Stanislav Bliznyuk (Chairman of the Management Board of Tinkoff Bank and also an employee of Tinkoff for over 15 years), the core Russian business will benefit from this new executive configuration.

Ilya Pisemsky, who is currently the Finance Director of Tinkoff Bank and who has been with Tinkoff since 2008, is promoted to the newly created position of Chief Financial Officer of the Company. In his new position Ilya will be responsible for overseeing all financial activities of the business of Tinkoff in Russia and abroad. Pavel Tokarev, currently Deputy Finance Director and another 15-year veteran of Tinkoff, is appointed to the position of Finance Director of Tinkoff Bank in Ilya's place.

All of these executive appointments will be effective from December 1, 2021.

Commenting on these changes, the Board of TCS Group Holding stated that "As a Board we believe that now is absolutely the right time to expand the executive leadership team. This significantly expands our ability to deliver on our ambitious growth plans and is further evidence of our long-stated ambition to enhance our corporate governance. We are fortunate to have such a highly talented, diverse and committed management pool within the Company and we are excited by the prospect of having Oliver and Pavel join forces to power Tinkoff forward in the coming years. This will enable us to move up a gear up as we expand our business in Russia and internationally, leveraging the extensive experience and complementary skills of our two Co-CEOs. Along with consistently setting new industry benchmarks for growth and profitability, the Company has acted timely to introduce changes to further develop its pivotal entrepreneurial spirit and innovative culture while at the same time deepening its executive bench. We also believe that these changes in the executive team reflect the partnership-driven and horizontal culture of our business, bring the competences that are required to execute on our long-term strategy, reward excellence with promotion and extend the executive capabilities of our team".

About Tinkoff Group

TCS Group Holding PLC is an innovative provider of online retail and SME financial services. It includes Tinkoff Bank, its mobile virtual network operator Tinkoff Mobile, Tinkoff Insurance, its asset management company Tinkoff Capital, Tinkoff Software DC, a network of development hubs in major Russian cities, and Tinkoff Education. The Group is currently developing Tinkoff ecosystem, which offers financial and lifestyle services.

The Group was founded in 2006 by Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since October 2013.

The Group's key business is Tinkoff Bank, a fully online bank that serves over 16 mn customers and forms the core of the Tinkoff ecosystem. Tinkoff is the 3rd largest retail bank in Russia in terms of active client-base.  In 2021 Tinkoff has been included in the CBR list of systemically important banks.

Tinkoff Bank is the second largest player in the Russian credit card market, with a share of 14.3%. The 2Q'21 IFRS net profit of TCS Group Holding PLC amounted to RUB 16.1 bn. The ROE was 46.1%.

With no branches, the Group serves all its customers remotely via online channels and a cloud-based call centre. The centre is staffed by over 10,000 employees, making it one of the largest in Europe. To ensure smooth delivery of the Group's products, the Group has a nationwide network of over 10,000 representatives.

Global Finance named Tinkoff Bank the world's Best Consumer Digital Bank in 2020 and 2018, and the Best Consumer Digital Bank in Russia in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2015. Tinkoff was also named the Best European Retail Bank of the Year by Retail Banker International in 2020. In 2021, the Banker recognised Tinkoff Bank as Russia's Best-Performing Bank. The bank's mobile app has been consistently praised by local and global independent experts as the best of its kind (in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 by Deloitte and in 2018 by Global Finance).