Moscow. May 5. Specializing in the sale of goods and services discounts Groupon has sold the American business in Russia. This was announced by its acting financial Director Brian Kayman on a conference call for investors and analysts, reports Vedomosti. According to him, the company has moved from Russia back in April, thereby reducing the number of countries where Groupon is present to 27.
Currently, Groupon Rus” is still in force, however, 100% of its ownership of the acquired investment Fund, announced in the Russian Groupon, however, without specifying which one. Two companion publications are sure that we are talking about the Fund ru-Net Leonid Boguslavsky.
Investment officer at ru-Net Alexander Pavlov confirmed to Vedomosti that the Fund has bought the entire Groupon business in Russia. He did not announced the amount of the transaction, saying only that the medium-term strategy for ru-Net in the improvement of profitability of Groupon in Russia and to encourage its growth due to the development in the regions, investing in sales and technology.
The Fund ru-Net is also the main owner of the coupon service Biglion, Groupon’s main competitor in Russia. Also at the end of last year, the Fund Boguslav became a co-investor in German service-aggregator of discounts Cuponation. Pavlov noted that the presence of competitors of common co-owner can go in plus them, he said. According to him, and Groupon and Biglion must first expand the base of buyers and to improve the service.
Groupon operates in Russia since 2010 – that’s when the American company bought a controlling stake similar to Russian service Darberry. People close to the parties to the transaction estimated it to be worth up to $ 50 million. In 2011, the founders of Darberry Victor Lysenko, Elena Mosolov sounded to the demonstration, Alexei Chernyak, Ivan Vladimirov and Oleg Kozyrev sold the remaining shares of Groupon. Groupon officially any of these transactions, details not described.
According to “SPARK-Interfax”, in 2014 the revenue of “Groupon Rus” decreased by 28% to RUB 470,3 million, net loss amounted to 256,5 million roubles; data for 2015 is not.
