Russia
Posted Fri, 26/02/2010 - 20:00
Swiss cloud computing firm Parallels has received a new round of venture capital as at least two investors bought in to an industry which is expected to reach USD 44.2 billion within the next several years. Russia Partners, a subsidiary of emerging market investor Siguler Guff & Co., was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners of New York in acquiring a minority stake. Bessemer has been an investor in Parallels since 2005.
Posted Wed, 24/02/2010 - 19:42
Daimler AG recently announced it has begun the process to strengthen its position and role KAMAZ, the Russian truck and bus manufacturer in which it already owns a 10% interest. Daimler has teamed up with the EBRD and signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase a 5% stake currently owned by Troika Dialog. Under terms of the proposal, the deal would be completed as two transactions; Daimler would acquire 1% with the EBRD getting the remaining 4%.
Posted Sat, 13/02/2010 - 12:59
Russia’s Allianz Rosno Asset Management has announced its most recent investment, a USD 5 million deal with marine research technology company Seismo-Shelf. The investment will be made via the Moscow-based USD 100 million New Technologies venture fund, which was established in 2009 to seek opportunities in emerging Russian technologies.
Posted Wed, 10/02/2010 - 17:17
Almaz Capital Partners has made an investment in Russian online game producer Alawar, making it the second Russian games sector deal in the last month after the Mangrove and ABRT funding of Drimmi. Through its Russia Fund I, Almaz has acquired 23% of Alawar at a cost of about USD 3 million; 15% was purchased from Finam Capital Partners and the remaining 8% from business angel investor Alexander Katalov. Finam's original investment in Alawar amounted to USD 1 million in 2007 while the company's valuation has increased 1200% since then.
Posted Mon, 08/02/2010 - 18:21
Luxembourg's Mangrove Capital and Russia's ABRT Fund have recently made an investment in Drimmi, a Russian social gaming company. The investment is estimated at several million dollars in exchange for a 20% stake. Drimmi apparently intends to use the new funding for the development and launch of its inaugural products.
Posted Wed, 03/02/2010 - 12:38
KupiVIP.ru, the Russian online shopping club led by CEO Oskar Hartmann, recently concluded a third round of new funding to the tune of USD 20 million. U.S.-based Accel Partners led the round and was joined by previous investors Arlan, Direct Group, Mangrove Capital Partners, and Oliver Jung. KupiVIP.ru has managed to raise a total of USD 31 million after its first to rounds brought in USD 3 million and USD 8 million, respectively. The new funding will be used to improve logistics and operational infrastructure.
Posted Mon, 01/02/2010 - 12:11
Aurora Russia has announced an agreement to increase its stake in OSG Records Management Group through conversion of a USD 1 million loan issued in March, 2009. In executing the option to convert the loan to ordinary OSG shares, Aurora will acquire existing shares from OSG as well as new shares to be issued. The total value of the transaction is £12.4 million; £8 million for existing shares, £3.2 million for new shares, and £1.2 million payable in cash to OSG.
Posted Tue, 26/01/2010 - 00:27
In an unusual three-way deal Charles Ryan, head of UFG Private Equity, has teamed up with Rising Star Media's Paul Heth and National Amusements' Shari Redstone to purchase Rising Star from National Amusements. Heth and Redstone, the daughter of American media mogul Sumner Redstone, founded Rising Star Media in 2002 to take advantage of the burgeoning Russian theatre market. Heth will serve as the Rising Star's CEO, Redstone will take the role of chairman, and Ryan will represent UFG in the venture. The three partners are committed to further expansion of Rising Star's Kinostar chain throughout Russia.
Posted Thu, 14/01/2010 - 22:42
Russian venture capital fund Bioprocess Capital Ventures has struck a deal with American pharmaceutical company Cleveland BioLabs to form a new joint venture named Incuron. The new company will be given the rights to CBLI's Curaxin pipeline, further developing the compounds for cancer treatment. Three investments totalling USD 18 million will be provided by BCV as Incuron reaches goals agreed to by both parties. The first USD 5.8 million will be given when Incuron is legally formed, the second investment of USD 6.4 million will be made when Incuron is ready for clinical trials, and the remaining amount will be provided at the completion of at least one Phase I/II patient trial.
Posted Thu, 14/01/2010 - 22:32
Russia's Metalloinvest has spoken with bankers about a possible 2010 initial public offering (IPO), though a specific target date and price have not been settled on. It's believed the Russian iron ore producer will eventually sell company shares publicly as it tries shore up and refinance more than USD 5.4 billion in debt. Metalloinvest first planned an IPO in 2008 but had to cancel those plans due to the financial crisis and waning investor enthusiasm.
Posted Thu, 14/01/2010 - 22:24
Just days before being de-listed from London's AIM, Russian media giant Rambler Media received a shareholder notification from Moscow-based Troika Dialog. The notification states Troika's interest in acquiring 466,683 ordinary shares in Rambler, on top of what was purchased a week earlier. The shares represent just over 3% of Rambler's issued ordinary share capital and will be sold for USD 0.01 per share.
Posted Mon, 11/01/2010 - 01:06
Russia's Mint Capital has completed divestiture from American telecom software developer, jNetX, following an October 2009 announcement that it had put the company up for sale. After initially investing USD 2 million in jNetX in 2002 and adding several million more since, Mint sold the company to U.S.-based Amdocs for USD 50 million, free of debt and cash.
Posted Thu, 07/01/2010 - 14:58
Nival Network, the Russian online gaming company owned by Nival Group, has secured significant venture capital financing which is expected to be dedicated to their newest project, Prime World. The USD 5 million deal was reached with unknown investors who see good potential in the Russian online gaming market, an industry that has received hundreds of millions of dollars in investment funding in recent years.
Posted Thu, 07/01/2010 - 14:53
In one of Russia's biggest investment deals of the year, Moscow-based telecom player NetByNet has secured USD 30 million in new investment capital. The total amount came from two investors; Russian businessman Ivan Tavrin at USD 10 million and Aton Capital Partners at USD 20 million. With approximately 8% of the Russian broadband market, NetByNet was recently valued at USD 120 million.
Posted Wed, 16/12/2009 - 23:05
Following a September 2009 announcement regarding plans for an initial public offering, Russia's Human Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) has become the first Russian company to hold an IPO in over a year. The USD 4.6 million offering was made via the MICEX Stock Exchange, in the Innovation and Growth Companies sector. 15 million shares were sold to investors at USD 0.32 (RU 9.5) per share.
Posted Tue, 08/12/2009 - 23:10
Swiss telecom company Trivon Group has reached a deal with Effortel to acquire MediaSeti, a Russian wireless broadband operator. The acquisition strengthens Trivon's Russian presence, adding to its current Virgin Connect operations in Russia. Though both parties agreed to keep transaction details private, the deal has been estimated to be near RU 250 million. Trivon continues to expand in the Russian market with a series of customer-based acquisitions.
Posted Tue, 08/12/2009 - 21:22
After a two-year legal battle between PPF Investments and Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element, an arbitration court has ruled in favour of PPF regarding rule changes designed to hamper its involvement with Russian insurance company Ingosstrakh. As a minority investors, PPF was subjected to new rules for Ingosstrakh board members which it believed was both discriminatory and unnecessarily restricting to shareholder rights. The court apparently agreed, saying the new rules violated Russian law. Earlier this year Mr. Deripaska withdrew from negotiations to sell his stake in Ingosstrakh, unhappy that PPF would be given joint control with 50-50 partner Generali.
Posted Sun, 06/12/2009 - 00:21
German car maker Daimler appears to be working on a deal with Troika Dialog to buy an additional 15% of Kamaz, the financially troubled Russian truck manufacturer. If Daimler, which already owns 10% of Kamaz, can work out a deal with an acceptable price it would then own a blocking share of 25% and be able to exert greater influence. Minority shareholder Russian Technologies is also interested in acquiring the Troika stake but the Russian government appears more preferential to Western investors.
Posted Sun, 06/12/2009 - 00:11
WomanJournal.ru and Passion.ru, two of Russia's many websites targeting woman, will merge through an agreement recently reached between the two site's individual owners. The deal calls for Passion.ru's Evgeny and Svetlana Vysokovskiy to receive a stake of less than 50% and two Board seats at Milanor, the owner of WomanJournal.ru. The parties hope the merger will result in a business that can attract more advertising dollars and better compete with Russia's other online women's properties.
Posted Thu, 03/12/2009 - 17:43
Russia's leading internet portal, Mail.ru, has announced plans to acquire online gaming giant Astrum Online and merge the two companies. Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) recently gave Naspers, which owns a 43% stake in Mail.ru, the go-ahead to acquire between 38% and 100% of Astrum from majority shareholder Digital Sky Technologies.
