Baring Vostok bought the whole Ozon
Almost 100% of the shares of the online store Ozon is now in the hands of one owner - the Baring Vostok Capital Partners (BVCP) private equity fund. The Russian holding company PPE Group , the former owner of the controlling stake, not only sold BVCP 50% and 1 share of the online store, but also bought 40% of its own shares from this company. According to Vedomosti , coming from a source in investment circles, the PPE Group was preparing a deal specifically to repurchase shares of its company.
“Ozon.Ru turned out to be a bargaining chip in a larger deal,” the newspaper quotes the expert opinion, specifying that the current owner of the online store was already its majority shareholder until 2002, until he transferred part of his package to PPE Group. “Thus, BVCP just regained the package that it had owned before,” say people familiar with the situation.
The PPE Group, as Vladislav Kochetkov told Habrahabru, the spokesperson of the Finam Information Technologies Foundation , probably only exchanged shares without making additional payments: 40% PPE without Ozon.Ru will cost about the same as 50% online store. According to the expert, 40% of PPE can be estimated at $ 60-70 million, and "this amount is quite comparable with the cost of Ozon.Ru as an independent asset."
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The PPE Group explains the deal a little differently. According to Anna Ganeeva, director of communications, the holding decided to focus on its core business - distance trading in catalogs. She added that private equity funds rarely invest more than 3-4 years - the investments in the PPE Group came from BVCP in 2001. With the sale of Ozon.Ru, the company will not leave e-commerce, and will begin to invest in the promotion of the store “On the House”, through which the goods of the same name catalog brand are exclusively sold. This business expert “Finam” sees more profitable, although less promising than the sold one. “However, without Ozon.Ru, the company has become less interesting for investors,” he adds. “Most likely, she will have to give up her IPO.”
The turnover of Ozone in 2005 was set at $ 19.3 million, despite the fact that the bulk of sales were books (43.4%), video (25.1%) and audio products (7.8%). The new owner of the online store considers his purchase successful. Experts say that maybe in a year this business will cost twice as much.
“Probably, the fund is ready to invest significant sums in the further development of Ozon.Ru,” said Vladislav Kochetkov. In his opinion, the sale could have been caused by the contradictions that arose between BVCP and PPE in the matter of additional investments in the online store. Kochetkov also noted that, most likely, BVCP will increase the capitalization of Ozon.Ru, preparing it for sale to one of the western players - for example, “Amazon”.
“Ozon.Ru turned out to be a bargaining chip in a larger deal,” the newspaper quotes the expert opinion, specifying that the current owner of the online store was already its majority shareholder until 2002, until he transferred part of his package to PPE Group. “Thus, BVCP just regained the package that it had owned before,” say people familiar with the situation.
The PPE Group, as Vladislav Kochetkov told Habrahabru, the spokesperson of the Finam Information Technologies Foundation , probably only exchanged shares without making additional payments: 40% PPE without Ozon.Ru will cost about the same as 50% online store. According to the expert, 40% of PPE can be estimated at $ 60-70 million, and "this amount is quite comparable with the cost of Ozon.Ru as an independent asset."
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The PPE Group explains the deal a little differently. According to Anna Ganeeva, director of communications, the holding decided to focus on its core business - distance trading in catalogs. She added that private equity funds rarely invest more than 3-4 years - the investments in the PPE Group came from BVCP in 2001. With the sale of Ozon.Ru, the company will not leave e-commerce, and will begin to invest in the promotion of the store “On the House”, through which the goods of the same name catalog brand are exclusively sold. This business expert “Finam” sees more profitable, although less promising than the sold one. “However, without Ozon.Ru, the company has become less interesting for investors,” he adds. “Most likely, she will have to give up her IPO.”
The turnover of Ozone in 2005 was set at $ 19.3 million, despite the fact that the bulk of sales were books (43.4%), video (25.1%) and audio products (7.8%). The new owner of the online store considers his purchase successful. Experts say that maybe in a year this business will cost twice as much.
“Probably, the fund is ready to invest significant sums in the further development of Ozon.Ru,” said Vladislav Kochetkov. In his opinion, the sale could have been caused by the contradictions that arose between BVCP and PPE in the matter of additional investments in the online store. Kochetkov also noted that, most likely, BVCP will increase the capitalization of Ozon.Ru, preparing it for sale to one of the western players - for example, “Amazon”.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4591/
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