PRESS: Sberbank may buy O’Key stores for JV with Yandex

MOSCOW, Apr 23 (PRIME) -- Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank may be in talks to buy a U.S. $465 million worth of retail chain O’Key Group for the bank’s joint venture with Internet company Yandex, working on the basis of Yandex.Market, business daily Kommersant reported on Tuesday, quoting investment sources.

The purchase would cut costs of the Internet floor, develop multi-channel sales, and raise the margin.

One of the sources said Sberbank is still considering integration of assets.

An O’Key spokesperson said earlier in April that the group’s board of directors is analyzing various approaches to the hypermarket business, including Sberbank’s interest. The bank’s CEO German Gref said it is only a financing bank and does not plan to buy the asset for itself.

As of the end of 2018 O’Key ran 78 eponymous hypermarkets and 84 discounters Da, or Yes. According to a financial source, the business of O’Key hypermarkets can be valued at 90% of the whole company.

The group’s capitalization amounted to $516.6 million on the London Stock Exchange as of the end of Monday, which values the hypermarket business at $464.9 million.

Sberbank and Yandex created the joint venture, which will develop marketplace Beru on the basis of Yandex.Market, in April 2018. The bank invested 30 billion rubles, and Yandex contributed its marketplace with the partners owning the business on a parity basis.

(63.7860 rubles – U.S. $1)

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