At their extraordinary meeting, the shareholders of PJSC “MegaFon” approved the deal to buy a stake in the Mail.Ru Group. This is stated in the announcement published on the web site “Corporate Information Disclosure Center”.
The decision was voted for by over 209 million votes (33.7% of the total), against 10.77 million (1.7%). The press release does not specify who those shareholders were and how they voted.
“MegaFon” is planning to buy out 63.8% of the Mail.Ru Group’s voting stocks (15.2% of the capital) from the USM Group companies of Alisher Usmanov like the New Media and Technology Investment, the New Media Technologies Capital Partners and the Ardoe Finance.
At the close of deal, they will receive USD 640 million and another USD 100 million a year after, as it was reported at the end of 2016 .
“MegaFon” has no intention to bring its share in the Mail.Ru Group up to one hundred percent, as the operator’s spokesman announced before.
The Mail.Ru Group holds a leading position in the Russian-speaking web segment (its sites are visited by about 93% of Runet users monthly). The Group owns the e-mail service Mail.ru, social networks “VKontakte”, “Odnoklassniki”, and “Moy Mir”, a portfolio of the largest online games, the MAPS.ME service, messengers Mail.ru Agent and ICQ.
“MegaFon” is a federal cellular operator of Russia. The company’s services are enjoyed by 77.3 million people.
