Why the sale of HeadHunter for 10 billion rubles promises to be the deal of the year
On February 26, Megamind wrote that Mail.ru Group Limited announced the sale of a service for posting vacancies and summaries of HeadHunter .
The amount of the transaction for the sale of HeadHunter to a consortium of investors led by Elbrus Capital, which previously acted as one of the buyers, amounted to 10 billion rubles. The company, whose assets are limited to the recruitment site, was estimated at six times its annual profit.
Why is the company sold at this price?
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Despite the crisis, the sale of the largest player in the recruiting market for office workers in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Azerbaijan has become one of the largest in the past year and a half. The secret of HeadHunter’s success, which has been selling for the second time in the past ten years, is that it has become a large and universal company and, wherever growth has begun, it will be able to feel it first, analysts of Kommersant write .
Mikhail Frolkin and Yuri Virovets founded the company in 2000. By 2005, the site hh.ru overtook competitors in the white-collar niche, and it became possible to fulfill the founders' dream - to leave the business with good money. In 2007, the company found a buyer in the face of Digital Sky Technologies ( DST ) Yuri Milner and Alisher Usmanov, who was just making active purchases in Runet. Especially so that the company could be transferred to new owners without damage to the business, in 2007 they hired Mikhail Zhukov from SIBUR . In 2012, DST was renamed Mail.ru and brought the share in HeadHunter to 100%.
In 2013, HeadHunter accounted for 10% of Mail.ru's consolidated revenue (the site brought 2.76 billion rubles) and 8% of net profit (EBITDA was 1.36 billion rubles). Moreover, revenue grew by almost a third compared with the previous year.
However, in 2015, HeadHunter's revenue decreased by 1.5% to 3.05 billion rubles, EBITDA decreased by 2.5%, to 1.5 billion rubles compared with the result a year earlier.
At the same time, the company itself predicts that in 2017, profits will increase by 15%, and in 2018, by 10%.
Last year, for example, the margin was 50%, emphasizes VTB Capital analyst Vladimir Bespalov. “At the same time, EBITDA rose to 1.5 billion rubles. All this is very good performance, ”he believes. In addition, since the purchase of Mail.ru, the resume database has expanded from 3 million to 20 million, and the base of vacancies from 70 thousand to 360 thousand.
Despite the recent decline, for a niche, highly specialized project, such financial results cannot be called modest, Kommersant experts believe.
Mail.Ru Group was going to sell HeadHunter to a consortium of investors led by Elbrus Capital in 2014, but at that time it did not have the amount needed for the takeover. As a result of the fall in the ruble exchange rate, the asset was acquired not for $ 210 million, as it was supposed, but for $ 139 million. But the interests of Mail.ru were not particularly affected by this, since it sold the company twice as much as it bought.
Experts believe that the company could be sold and more expensive. But for the “uninitiated” the fact of selling 10 billion rubles to a company that does not have production assets and does not even produce any fashionable gadgets is surprising.
“For 2014, we predicted 3.5 billion rubles, but in reality, most likely, about 3 billion came out. Thus, the asset is estimated at approximately three revenues, ” says Leonid Delitsyn, an analyst with the FINAM Group of Companies.
The multiplier P / S industry-leading resource, LinkedIn - above, it is 5.2. LinkedIn, however, is one of a kind.
Buying HeadHunter with a decent multiplier, Elbrus Capital seems to have a plan in mind that will allow the asset to grow quickly. What kind of plan this is is unknown, but perhaps some mobile service is meant, ”Mr. Delitsyn concludes.
“The purchase of HeadHunter says that investors are sure: the hard times in the Russian market will end in the foreseeable future. The company is mobile in relation to the markets in which it operates, and is going to enter the markets of other countries - this means that no matter where growth starts - in IT, or in biotechnology, or in other promising areas - it will affect the profits of HeadHunter. ” , says international financial consultant Isaac Becker.
The HeadHunter office located in the business center not far from the VDNKh is not at all like the “human resources department”: employees were allowed to play laser tag and video games in the middle of the day; someone, lounging on a sofa, strumming on an electric guitar.
The amount of the transaction for the sale of HeadHunter to a consortium of investors led by Elbrus Capital, which previously acted as one of the buyers, amounted to 10 billion rubles. The company, whose assets are limited to the recruitment site, was estimated at six times its annual profit.
Why is the company sold at this price?
')
Despite the crisis, the sale of the largest player in the recruiting market for office workers in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Azerbaijan has become one of the largest in the past year and a half. The secret of HeadHunter’s success, which has been selling for the second time in the past ten years, is that it has become a large and universal company and, wherever growth has begun, it will be able to feel it first, analysts of Kommersant write .
Mikhail Frolkin and Yuri Virovets founded the company in 2000. By 2005, the site hh.ru overtook competitors in the white-collar niche, and it became possible to fulfill the founders' dream - to leave the business with good money. In 2007, the company found a buyer in the face of Digital Sky Technologies ( DST ) Yuri Milner and Alisher Usmanov, who was just making active purchases in Runet. Especially so that the company could be transferred to new owners without damage to the business, in 2007 they hired Mikhail Zhukov from SIBUR . In 2012, DST was renamed Mail.ru and brought the share in HeadHunter to 100%.
Financial results
In 2013, HeadHunter accounted for 10% of Mail.ru's consolidated revenue (the site brought 2.76 billion rubles) and 8% of net profit (EBITDA was 1.36 billion rubles). Moreover, revenue grew by almost a third compared with the previous year.
However, in 2015, HeadHunter's revenue decreased by 1.5% to 3.05 billion rubles, EBITDA decreased by 2.5%, to 1.5 billion rubles compared with the result a year earlier.
At the same time, the company itself predicts that in 2017, profits will increase by 15%, and in 2018, by 10%.
Last year, for example, the margin was 50%, emphasizes VTB Capital analyst Vladimir Bespalov. “At the same time, EBITDA rose to 1.5 billion rubles. All this is very good performance, ”he believes. In addition, since the purchase of Mail.ru, the resume database has expanded from 3 million to 20 million, and the base of vacancies from 70 thousand to 360 thousand.
Despite the recent decline, for a niche, highly specialized project, such financial results cannot be called modest, Kommersant experts believe.
The deal is beneficial to all
Mail.Ru Group was going to sell HeadHunter to a consortium of investors led by Elbrus Capital in 2014, but at that time it did not have the amount needed for the takeover. As a result of the fall in the ruble exchange rate, the asset was acquired not for $ 210 million, as it was supposed, but for $ 139 million. But the interests of Mail.ru were not particularly affected by this, since it sold the company twice as much as it bought.
Experts believe that the company could be sold and more expensive. But for the “uninitiated” the fact of selling 10 billion rubles to a company that does not have production assets and does not even produce any fashionable gadgets is surprising.
“For 2014, we predicted 3.5 billion rubles, but in reality, most likely, about 3 billion came out. Thus, the asset is estimated at approximately three revenues, ” says Leonid Delitsyn, an analyst with the FINAM Group of Companies.
The multiplier P / S industry-leading resource, LinkedIn - above, it is 5.2. LinkedIn, however, is one of a kind.
A veteran of the online job sector - Monster.com is almost worthless, since 2000 the value of its shares has dropped 40 times. That is, it cannot be said that there is a place for everyone in the global job market.“Of course, getting rid of HeadHunter, Mail.Ru holding gets the cache and simplifies the management of the holding, but these reasons are not enough to get rid of a profitable asset cheaply. There is no place to hurry to the holding - no one forced him to get rid of HeadHunter.
Buying HeadHunter with a decent multiplier, Elbrus Capital seems to have a plan in mind that will allow the asset to grow quickly. What kind of plan this is is unknown, but perhaps some mobile service is meant, ”Mr. Delitsyn concludes.
“The purchase of HeadHunter says that investors are sure: the hard times in the Russian market will end in the foreseeable future. The company is mobile in relation to the markets in which it operates, and is going to enter the markets of other countries - this means that no matter where growth starts - in IT, or in biotechnology, or in other promising areas - it will affect the profits of HeadHunter. ” , says international financial consultant Isaac Becker.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/299324/
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