MegaFon shareholders and Mail.ru Group discuss the possibility of a merger

Today, a number of Russian media reported on the discussion between shareholders of MegaFon and Mail.ru Group about the possibility of merging companies. The primary source is Gazeta.ru , which received this information from people close to the discussion of the issue. This information is also confirmed by the RNS through its own sources. At the same time, it is reported that so far "there are no formalized solutions."

The initiator of the transaction according to the sources is the operator Megafon, which is owned by USM billionaire Alisher Usmanov. In Mail.ru Group USM has 63.8% of the vote and 15.2% of economic interest .

A possible merger between Megafon and Mail.ru Group could be the largest deal in the history of the Russian telecommunications and IT market. The union can be opposed by the Swedish group Telia, which owns a 25.17% stake in MegaFon. According to the sources, consultations are currently being held between representatives of MegaFon and Telia on issues of a possible merger.
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At the same time, MegaFon officials do not give any comments on press inquiries. Do not comment on this information and representatives of Mail.ru Group.

Mail.ru is one of the largest domestic IT companies. The holding’s assets include social networks Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir, as well as a share in a number of other companies and resources. In addition to the social sphere, Mail.ru Group acts as a publisher and developer of games, and also owns a popular e-mail service.

The net profit of Mail.ru for 2015 amounted to 11.5 billion rubles, the market capitalization - 599.55 billion rubles. The net profit of MegaFon for the same period amounted to 39.04 billion rubles, the capitalization - 343.54 billion rubles.

Updated.

According to RBC , MegaFon representatives confirm that negotiations with the Mail.ru Group are underway, but only in terms of cooperation in the development of new products and services. Megafon also reports that it “is negotiating with some shareholders,” but even if the deal goes through, Mail.Ru will continue to operate as an independent company “on fully market conditions”.