PRESS: MTS said in talks to buy e-cinema ivi for 20 bln rbl

MOSCOW, Apr 9 (PRIME) -- Major Russian mobile operator MTS has started negotiations on the purcase of 100% of ivi, a leading local online cinema, for some 20 billion rubles, business daily RBC reported on Tuesday quoting sources.

An ivi shareholder confirmed the information, but said that “not all shareholders are ready to sell the company at the mentioned price.”

ivi was launched in February 2010 by Oleg Tumanov. Owner of OOO Ivi is Cyprus-registered Ivi.ru Media Ltd., whose main holder is a unit of investment company ru-Net, which has a 22.7% common stake. Baring Vostok owns a large stake of preferred shares.

Leonid Boguslavsky, chairman of the board of directors of ru-Net, said that different investors show interest to ivi, but “there are no advanced talks with anybody at the moment.”

ivi’s revenue increased 62% in 2018 to 3.94 billion rubles, as calculated under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

TMT Consulting analyst Yelena Krylova said the country’s online cinema market widened 45% in 2018 to 11 billion rubles. In money terms, ivi expanded its market share by 4 percentage points to 36% and remained the leader. The share of the second largest online cinema Okko, a part of Rambler Group, was at 19% as of the end of 2018.

(65.3498 rubles – U.S. $1)

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