Sberbank of Russia : to invest in Rambler Group additionally

Sberbank plans to invest additionally in Rambler Group as part of a new round of equity financing to ensure the group's absolute leadership in the market. The aggregate investment is set to total about RUB2 bn.

A portion of the investment will be injected into the accelerated growth of Okko's market share to make the multimedia service the largest OTT platform in Russia as soon as in 2021. Also, by investing in products and technologies of Rambler&Co's media service projects, the group is set to strengthen its leadership in the online media industry and the market for e-tickets to events.

As part of the additional financing, Sberbank will buy the 6.95% treasury stake from the Rambler Group that the group had acquired from financial investor Era Capital. In addition to buying out 6.95% directly from Rambler Group, which will increase Sberbank's interest to 53.5%, the bank will also acquire a 1.5% stake directly from A&NN, the second shareholder of Rambler Group. Sberbank's share in the group's capital will thus increase to 55%.

Tatyana Dobrokhvalova, Senior Vice President, Head of Advertising and Media Industry, Sberbank:

'I am sure now is a great time to ramp up investment in media and entertainment areas of Sberbank Group. Rambler Group media and services are familiar to most Russians: at least once everyone has read the news on Lenta.ru, bought tickets via Rambler/Kassa ticketing service, watched a movie on Okko, or rooted for their favorite team with Championat.com. We intend to bring Rambler Group projects to a whole new level, ensuring their accelerated technological evolution, and organically fit them into our ecosystem of multiple products and services.'

Rafael Abramyan, CEO, Rambler Group:

'To date, Okko's paying audience has tripled from what was seen before the deal with Sberbank, largely due to the joint projects and distribution through the Sberbank channels. Since then, the audience of Rambler&Co media service projects has soared 20% to reach 66 mln in March 2020, while the number of tickets sold in 2019 through the Rambler/Kassa online ticketing office nearly doubled from the previous year reaching 24 million. Attracting additional financing and strengthening the synergies with Sberbank will enable us to build up market shares of all our projects more aggressively.'

Sberbank decided to invest in Rambler Group in April 2019 and the Sberbank ecosystem added the brands of the group, including the Okko multimedia service, the Rambler&Co media service holding, and the Khudozhestvenny cinema.