SOGAZ bought out Usmanov's stake in VK. Gazprom now holds the majority of the company's shares
USM Holding, owned by Alisher Usmanov, sold its stake in VK to SOGAZ Group. Now the majority of the company’s shares are at the disposal of Gazprom-related structures. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.On its website, SOGAZ announced the purchase of a 45 percent stake in the capital of MF Technologies JSC, which owns 57.3% of VK votes.
This is the share that USM holding owned through MegaFon.
“Today we are withdrawing from the company’s capital, leaving it at the peak of indicators both in terms of the number of audience and financial metrics,” Usmanov told Kommersant.
Alexey Miller, the
head of Gazprom and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SOGAZ Group, noted that as a result, there will not be one controlling legal entity between the shareholders of MF Technologies. All actions will be carried out “on purely market principles.”In November, Sberbank announced plans to sell 36% in MF Technologies. The share worth 12.8 billion rubles will go to Gazprombank. Based on this estimate, the value of the transaction with the SOGAZ group may amount to about 16 billion rubles.
Another 10% of MF Technologies belongs to Rostec, and 9% was directly controlled by USM. According to Kommersant, these shares are also included in the package of the deal with Gazprombank.
SOGAZ Group is an insurance company founded by Gazprom. Considering the sale of its stake by Sberbank, now the majority of VK’s voting shares belong to structures related to Gazprom.
