Mail.ru Group sold HeadHunter

Mail.ru Group company announced the sale of 100% of the company HeadHunter (job search site hh.ru) for 9.85 billion rubles to a consortium of investors led by Elbrus Capital.

Mail.Ru Group has owned the HeadHunter business for 6 years. During this time, HeadHunter monthly attendance increased from 4 to 14 million unique visitors, the summary base - from 3 to 14.5 million, the vacancy base - from 70 to 360 thousand. In the same period, HeadHunter entered the markets of Belarus (2010) and Azerbaijan (2012), launched a rating of Russian employers, a salary database, a Clickme advertising service and an online job fair.
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In 2013, HeadHunter's revenue amounted to 2.8 billion rubles, and EBITDA - 1.4 billion rubles. For the first 9 months of 2014, revenues and EBITDA amounted to 2.3 billion rubles and 1.2 billion rubles, respectively.

Based on current operating indicators, it can be concluded that the value of the sale of the asset is understated. This may be due not only to the financial crisis in Russia and the falling employment market, but also to credit obligations to Gazprombank - the bank provided Mail.Ru Group a loan of 22 billion rubles to purchase 48% of the shares of the Vkontakte social network from the fund UCP.

Dmitry Kryukov, managing partner of Elbrus Capital, commented on the deal: “HeadHunter is the absolute leader in the online recruitment market, the company has a very strong management team with an impressive history of growth and success. We highly appreciate the prospects of the online HR solutions market in Russia and other countries. Our experience and capital of our investors will open up new opportunities for HeadHunter to implement its strategy: further development of technologies (including mobile), launching new products and services, as well as entering new markets. ”

Mikhail Zhukov, Managing Director of HeadHunter, expressed confidence that “this event will have a very positive impact on our customers and users who, with the help of HeadHunter, develop their business every day and build their careers.”

“The completion of the transaction is expected in Q1 2015 and requires the approval of third parties,” the press release says.

Since June 2014, Mail.ru Group shares on the stock exchange have fallen from $ 37 to $ 23 .