ICS ICS Holding

ICS is a multidisciplinary IT holding that unites companies in key IT areas and invests in the development of the domestic engineering school.

Aktivs

As of March 2023, the holding includes groups of companies: YADRO, Citadel, Garda, Kryptonite, Bureau 1440, as well as the Museum of Cryptography.

ICS employs more than 5,000 employees, 70% of whom are engineers and scientists in technology and communications. The holding's partner network includes over 50 enterprises in Russia and abroad.

Areas of activity

Performance indicators

2022: Revenue growth doubled to 91 billion rubles

At the end of 2022, the combined revenue of ICS Holding amounted to 91 billion rubles against 42 billion rubles a year earlier. Thus, the company's revenue more than doubled (by 116.7%). Such data were released on April 11, 2023.

The indicator includes revenue on assets in the perimeter of ICS Holding after the separation from USM Holdings in March 2022. In the ranking "TAdviser100: The largest IT companies in Russia 2023," such an indicator allowed the company to take 7th place.

A Kommersant source close to the holding suggests that "more than 60% of the revenue came from Yadro Group of Companies." In addition to Yadro, the holding unites equipment suppliers for SORM Citadel and Kryptonit, a developer of information security solutions Garda Technology, as well as Bureau 1440 (a company preparing to launch a low-orbit satellite constellation).

EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortification), which measures the company's profit before deducting interest on loans, income tax and depreciation on main intangible assets, tripled, amounting to 29 billion rubles. instead of 10 billion rubles in 2021

This makes the holding one of the fastest growing companies in the Russian IT segment, and with the entry into the satellite communication market with broadband global coverage, it is a unique domestic IT giant, - said in ICS Holding.

As noted in the message, import substitution of products of foreign IT giants that left the Russian market entailed an increased demand for the products of ICS Holding companies (DSS, servers). In addition, a number of information security products of the holding companies remained without equal competition.

The total cost of ICS Holding companies for development and research in 2022 amounted to more than 15 billion rubles. The report also says that in 2022 Yadro entered into forward contracts totaling more than 80 billion rubles with the largest telecom operators to create system solutions, which include GSM (2G) and LTE (4G) base stations, GSM base station controllers, control and monitoring systems (NMS).

According to the results of 2022, ICS Holding entered the top ten fastest growing IT companies in TAdviser100 ranking.

History

2024

Appointment of Alexei Shelobkov as CEO

In mid-February 2024, Alexey Shelobkov, who is also the head of the IT equipment manufacturer Yadro, became the new CEO of ICS Holding. Shelobkov also headed IKS JSC, which will become the new management company ICS Holding. Read more here.

Transfer of control over the holding to partners and co-founders of group companies

Control over "ICS Holding" passes to its partners and co-founders of the group's companies. This was reported to the Core Group of Companies (part of ICS Holding) on February 9, 2024.

The holding began the process of corporate restructuring, as a result of which control over the group will pass to the team of managing partners and co-founders of companies included in the ICS Holding group, - said in a statement by the Core Group, which leads Kommersant.

Control over "ICS Holding" passes to its partners and co-founders of the group's companies

According to the representative of "Core," the new management company of the holding will be the joint-stock company "IKS," the shareholders of which will be the founders of the following companies:

• GC "Core" (manufacturer of telecom equipment and computer equipment);
• "Garda" (developer of cybersecurity solutions);
• "Citadel" (PAC provider for telecom operators);
• Kryptonite (research company);
• "Bureau 1440" (develops and launches a satellite constellation).

The Core Group did not name the new shareholders of ICS Holding and only said that there would be less than 10 people, and their shares would be distributed evenly. Also, the representative of "Core" in a conversation with the publication clarified that the current stage of the group's development by February 2024 "does not require the presence of other participants in the shareholders of JSC" IKS, "including third-party companies, funds and organizations."

The key task of the team is the implementation of the group's long-term strategy, the development of unique engineering companies that form the new technological appearance of our country, - said in a statement on the ICS Holding website, published in connection with the announcement of corporate restructuring of the group.

Kommersant cites data from the SPARK-Interfax system, according to which IKS JSC was registered in December 2023. The authorized capital of the company is 1.2 million rubles. Data on the company's shareholders is hidden, Sergei Stolyarov has been appointed its CEO.^[1]

2023

5th place in the ranking of TAdviser "The largest IT companies in Russia"

"ICS Holding" took 5th place in the ranking of the 100 largest companies operating in the Russian IT market, prepared by TAdviser in June 2024 based on the companies' revenue for 2023. Read more here.

Change of CEO

On October 30, 2023, ICS Holding announced the change of CEO. He appointed Aleksei Belov, who has been working in the group since its foundation in 2018. Read more here.

ICS Holding is estimated at 300 billion rubles

In July 2023, the Trust Technologies company (the former Russian division of PwC) estimated ICS Holding at 300 billion rubles. Anton Cherepennikov's company itself called the figure "as close to reality as possible."

Natalia Zamovina, deputy general director of ICS Holding for Finance and Treasury, explained to RBC that the company is conducting an independent credit assessment of the holding and its assets in order to "understand the investment potential and financial capabilities, as well as choose profitable instruments."

According to the source of the publication on the IT market, familiar with the conclusion of the consultants of "Technologies of Trust," with "ICS Holding" may go public in 2024. Taking into account the peculiarities of the market, the ultimate goal of issuing bonds is to sell to individuals. At the same time, coupon income, according to banks, may amount to 10-11%, the source said.

Natalia Zamovina confirmed plans to issue bonds: the volume of a possible debut issue may amount to 1 billion rubles for a period of one year. The final decision on the release will be made before the end of 2023. She also pointed out that the final decision on the IPO by mid-July 2023 has not yet been made, "although external interest is high."

Earlier in July 2023, the rating agency RA Expert"" assigned the creditworthiness rating of LLC "ICS Holding" at the level of ruA-. The rating forecast is stable. As noted in the Expert RA press release, "the markets storage systems information security Russia are characterized by growing demand, primarily due to active digitalization and increased investment in the sphere. cyber security

Investment strategist of Arikapital Management Company Sergei Suverov believes that, based on the value of analogue companies, "such a fast-growing company as ICS Holding can cost about 8 EBITDA," that is, 272.8 billion rubles, based on the value of the indicator for 2022^[2]

Inclusion in the US sanctions list

In February 2023, "ICS Holding" was included in the US SDN sanctions list ^[3]

Russian IT companies that fell under US, EU and British sanctions in 2022-2024 TAdviser map

Map of sub-sanctioned IT companies. Click to enlarge

TAdviser has drawn up a map the Russian IT of -companies that fell under sanctions in 2022-2024. and USA EU. Britain It included, among other things, the company "ICS Holding." The article about the map can be found here.

2022

Aktivs

As of March 2022, ICS Holding was a multidisciplinary IT group, which included YADRO Group of Companies, Citadel Group of Companies, Kryptonit Group of Companies, as well as projects for the development of low-orbit satellite communications for high-speed data transmission.

List of all ICS Holding companies for March 2022:

• Citadel Group of Companies: MFI Soft, Osnova Lab, Malvin Systems, Tekhargos, Signature, Bastion, ADM Systems, Garda Technologies.
• Kryptonit Group of Companies: LLC UK Kryptonit, NPK Kryptonit.
• YADRO HA Syntacore notAnotherOne: YADRO, ,.

USM Holding sold ICS Holding

On February 2, 2022, it became known about the sale of the ICS Holding IT group to its founder Anton Cherepennikov. Financial and other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

As they write Sheets"" with reference to the data SPARK-Interfax"," before 100% of the "ICS Holding" belonged Eusham Telecom (combines the telecommunications assets of the holding), USM Alisher Usmanova which, in turn, is 80% owned by USM, another 10% - from Cherepennikov and Vladimir Streshinsky.

As a result of the transaction, the legal registration of which will be completed in the near future, Anton Cherepennikov will consolidate 100% of the shares in the capital of ICS Holding, the USM said in a statement.

It also says that Yuesam Telecom will retain the assets necessary for the development and functioning of telecom business, support for IT solutions and digital transformation: a group of IT companies, a Outpost provider of BSS solutions Nexign and a developer of a secure data monetization platform. Yuesam OneFactor Telecom also includes a telecom operator.Megaphone

It is specified that a group of Russian technology companies Yadro, a developer of solutions in the field of information security of the Citadel Group of Companies, a research company Kryptonit, as well as projects related to the creation of a low-orbit satellite data transmission system remain in ICS Holding.

At the same time, Cherepennikov, who previously left the post of operating director of YuSeM Telecom, remains a member of the board of directors of Megafon.

We are pleased with the synergy that was provided as part of the joint development of our assets, but today USM and ICS Holding will focus on the implementation of their own strategies. We are grateful to Anton and all colleagues from ICS Holding for their fruitful joint work and wish them success, "said USM CEO Ivan Streshinsky.[4]

Sale of Alisher Usmanov's Yuesam Telecom 99% in the Outpost group

Alisher Usmanov's holding Yuesam Telecom (part of the USM holding) acquired 99% of the Outpost group from ICS Holding. Details of the deal were not disclosed. Since February 11, 2022, 99% of the group is owned by USM. The rest belongs to Alexei Khrenov.

"Outpost" unites eight participants in the IT market. Among them are Talmer, Next Soft, Corvette Development, JSA Group, Cometrica, NLogic, etc. Companies are engaged in system integration, digital transformation of large enterprises, information security, big data, artificial intelligence, development of high-tech solutions for comfortable housing and business, etc. The total number of employees working in companies exceeds 2.4 thousand people, according to the official website of Outpost.

The "ICS Holding" confirmed the transaction, but did not disclose details.

According to the Kontur.focus Us database, Forpost LLC was registered on October 4, 2016 in Moscow. Its CEO is Yulia Shutkina.

In October 2016, the sole owner of the company was Anton Cherepennikov, in December 2017, 12.5% went to Megafon. In November 2018, 1% of Cherepennikov passed to Alexei Krutitsky. In May 2020, 99% of the company became owned by ICS Holding and in June 2020, 1% of Krutitsky moved to Khrenov.

2021

Revenue decrease by 3.3% to RUB 101,634 million

At the end of 2021, the revenue of ICS Holding amounted to 101,634 million rubles, decreased by 3.3% compared to 2020, which allowed it to take 6th place in the ranking of TAdviser100: The largest IT companies in Russia 2022.

The beginning of the transaction on the sale of assets "ICS Holding" Anton Cherepennikov

On October 8, 2021, it became known about the beginning of the process of selling ICS Holding to its founder Anton Cherepennikov. The seller is Alisher Usmanov's USM group, its general director Ivan Streshinsky said in an interview with Kommersant.

According to him, the deal is planned to be carried out in about six months. As a result, a reorganization will take place, as a result of which Cherepennikov will receive the assets of ICS Holding in the field of information technology and equipment production, and the telecommunications business will remain at YuSeM Telecom. The financial terms of the contract are not disclosed.

Anton Cherepennikov, who by October 8, 2021 holds the position of operating director of YuSeM Telecom and has a 10% stake in the company, will leave the holding, but will remain at MegaFon as an independent director.

According to Ivan Streshinsky, the changes are due to the fact that all the tasks that the company faced in terms of telecom business were completed.

We understand that in a certain way we limit the development of ICS Holding for two reasons. The first is due to the fact that from the point of view of strategy we do not concentrate on the topic of equipment production, this is a separate issue. The second is the affiliation between ICS Holding and Megafon to a certain extent harms the business of the former, he added.

By October 2021, the YueSeM Telecom holding company combines USM's key telecommunications and IT assets. It includes Megafon and 100% of the ICS Holding group (unites more than 30 IT companies, including Citadel, Outpost, Yadro, Kryptonit and Nexign), the founder of which is Cherepennikov. He owns a 10% stake in YuSeM Telecom, 80% remained with USM, another 10% with Ivan Streshinsky.^[5]

2020

Revenue growth by 7.7% to 88.6 billion rubles.

At the end of 2020, the revenue of ICS Holding amounted to 88.6 billion rubles, an increase of 7.7% compared to 2019, which allowed it to take 6th place in the ranking of TAdviser100: The largest IT companies in Russia 2021.

The total number of employees working in ICS Holding companies exceeded 6,000 people (as of 2020).

Inclusion in the rating "Largest IT companies in Russia 2021"

ICS Holding is included in the rating "The largest IT companies in Russia 2021 by revenue in 2020," prepared by TAdviser in June 2021. Read more here.

"ICS Holding" became the general sponsor of PFC CSKA

On August 3, 2020, ICS Holding told TAdviser that it had become the general sponsor of PFC CSKA. Read more here.

Assets of ICS Holding

As of May 2020, ICS Holding was a multidisciplinary IT group, which included more than 30 companies merged into five sub-holdings - YADRO, Nexign, Citadel, Kryptonite and Outpost.

List of all companies of ICS Holding for May 2020:

• Citadel Group of Companies: Osnova Lab, Malvin Systems, MFI Soft, Tekhargos, Signature, Bastion, ADM Systems and Garda Technologies.
• Forpost Group of Companies: TALMER, KorKlass (49%), STORM Technologies, Corvette Development, JSA Group (managed by ICS Holding), Cometrica, nlogic (80%), Nekst Soft (75%).
• Kryptonit Group of Companies: Kryptonit LLC (UK), Kryptonit NPK, Kryptonit IC.
• Nexign (Nexain JSC)
• KNS Group: YADRO (51%), Synthacore (51%), Digital Energy (70%), notAnotherOne (51%)
• ICS Holding Kazakhstan

USM Holdings buys ICS Holding

On April 30, 2020, USM Holdings Alisher Usmanova announced the purchase of ICS Holding. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, USM UEseM Telecom receives a 100% stake in ICS Holding and shares will be exchanged. The founder of ICS Holding Anton Cherepennikov will receive 10% of YuSeM Telecom, 80% of the company's shares will remain in the possession of USM, another 10% - from USM General Director Ivan Streshinsky.

As a result of the transaction, ICS Holding will become a division of YuSeM Telecom. Other key assets of the holding are structured according to the same principle, for example, Metalloinvest and Baikal Mining Company are part of YuSeM Metalloinvest.

MegaFon CEO Gevork Vermishyan and Anton Cherepennikov will retain their positions in the companies. Cherepennikov will also become the operating director of UeSeM Telecom and will join the board of directors of MegaFon. The deal is scheduled to close during 2020.

By the end of April 2020, the ICS Holding group includes 27 IT companies that specialize in digital transformation of enterprises, information security, data storage systems, cryptography and quantum computing, machine learning and neural networks, blockchain technology and artificial intelligence.

According to Ivan Streshinsky, combining the strengths of MegaFon and ICS Holding will create a wide range of synergies in various areas of information and telecommunication technologies, including solutions for the corporate and public sector.

In addition to the economic and operational advantages of such a consolidation of telecom and IT assets within the USM perimeter, we see strategic value in our new structure. Our ambition is to build the largest holding of digital services and solutions in the CIS and Eastern Europe based on two flagships in its industries, he said.[6]

2019

As of 2019, ICS Holding LLC is a Russian multidisciplinary IT group whose main tasks include investment, management and consolidation in the telecom media and technology market.

The Holding's mission is to promote the development of the digital economy in Russia and in global markets, to support domestic IT talents in various business sectors.

The geography of business covered all regions of Russia, as well as a number of countries of near and far abroad.

Otkritie Bank provided factoring financing to ICS Holding for 5.5 billion rubles

Otkritie Bank provided "ICS Holding" factoring funding for 5.5 billion rubles. Cooperation between the bank and the holding involves a pool of transactions to finance suppliers of the largest Russian telecommunication companies included in ICS Holding for the assignment of monetary claims to debtors.

Creation of a joint venture for digital development together with Gazprom Neft

On December 23, 2019, Gazprom Neft told TAdviser that, together with ICS Holding, they created a joint venture that will develop digital products for the oil and gas industry and implement them in the Russian and foreign industry market. Read more here.

Company assets as of 2019

As of June 2019, ICS Holding is a single ecosystem of 23 IT companies, including the holdings Citadel, Outpost, KNS Group (YADRO), Kryptonit and Peter-Service JSC (Nexign).

List of all companies of ICS Holding for November 2019:

• Citadel Group of Companies: Osnova Lab, Malvin Systems, MFI Soft, Tekhargos, Signature, Bastion, ADM Systems and Garda Technologies.
• GC "":, "(Outpost 49%),", "Talmer" "CoreClass" "", Storm Technology"(" G Corvette Development JSA Group ES Group ") (79.33% belongs to the holding company), Metalloinvest " "(50%), Cometrica(70%) Orbit Center , LLC" "(80 N-Logic%).
• Kryptonit Group of Companies: Kryptonit LLC (UK), Kryptonit NPK, Kryptonit IC.
• JSC "Peter-Service" (Nexign)
• KNS Group (YADRO) (51%)
• ICS Holding Kazakhstan

Cooperation with the Baikal Mining Company to create an Innovation Center in Chita

On June 7, 2019, it became known that ICS Holding and the Baikal Mining Company will create an Innovation Center in Chita. Read more here.

Creation of a joint venture with the "Enlightenment" group

On June 6, 2019, ICS Holding and the Enlightenment group of companies announced the creation of a joint digital enterprise - IT Enlightenment. Its main task is to develop products for solving practical problems in the field of education: educational process management systems, digital educational and methodological complexes, a marketplace for teachers, students and their parents, and other digital products and technologies in the fields of B2B and B2G. Read more here.

Agreement with SAP to develop MES- and RPA-solutions

SAP and the Russian group of companies ICS Holding will jointly develop innovative solutions in the field of operational production management and robotization of business processes (RPA). It is planned that the created IT products will be implemented in companies in Russia and the CIS. The parties signed the corresponding memorandum on June 6, 2019.

Cooperation between SAP and ICS Holding provides for joint work in the field of MES solutions for mining and metallurgical companies, as well as other enterprises with a continuous production cycle. The agreement also provides for the development and implementation of innovative projects in terms of detailed analysis and robotization of business processes. In addition, the companies will deal with the localization of SAP solutions for the requirements of the Russian market.

In working with mining and metallurgical companies, we were faced with the lack of IT solutions for operational production management, capable of solving the tasks of enterprises in accordance with the technological requirements of today. Without a high-quality solution to production problems, it is impossible to talk about Industry 4.0. Therefore, cooperation with technological leaders in this area is one of the important priorities for our company, - said Yulia Shutkina, vice president of ICS Holding.

Plans for superiority over Yandex in terms of revenue

On March 11, 2019, Vedomosti published an interview with Anton Cherepennikov. The businessman said that ICS Holding is comparable to  cMail.ru Group in terms of revenue and expects to overtake Yandex in this indicator. At the same time, the holding is not going to be like Yandex or Mail.ru Group.

At the end of 2018, the total revenue of five areas of ICS Holding - Citadel, Outpost, Kryptonit, Yadro and Peter Service - is tentatively estimated at 80 billion rubles. We are talking about the amount of assets.

But, in principle, it is still impossible to consolidate the figure, because assets were added gradually in 2018. The margin is very averaged over the holding - about 30%, - said Cherepennikov.

2018 was the year of purchases for the entrepreneur. In absolute terms, most transactions - except for MFI Software, Yadro and Peter Service - the volume of transactions did not exceed 1 billion rubles. When asked where the money came from, Anton Cherepennikov replied that he would always reinvest what he earned in a new business.

We have a rule in the group: we need to develop mainly for earned money and the debt should not exceed one year's profit. Now we hold all loans at the level of 20% of annual EBITDA "ICS Holding," - he said.

According to Vedomosti, although the businessman is proud, according to him, of working with Alisher Usmanov, he is pretty tired of constantly mentioning him as Usmanov's e-sports partner. At the same time, Cherepennikov maintains constant communication with Usmanov's assets. 

Cherepennikov said that the main idea of ​ ​ creating Outpost was to unite into a procurement alliance, and MegaFon Metalloinvest Mail.ru Group. Members of this alliance can save up to 30%.

The main condition of the customer for me was the provision of all reporting, documentation and work with a fixed margin: 5% - from delivery, 10% - from service. Then, with the growth of turnover, profit increases. On a large volume, I get the best prices and at some point I can already afford direct contracts with vendors... At the same time, the board of directors of the procurement alliance includes those responsible for purchases from these companies - they see each other's actions, including rechecking each other, "the businessman said.

Anton Cherepennikov is going to stop further acquisitions of companies and intends to structure all assets, introduce a single system and uniform rules.

The companies included in ICS Holding will retain their focus and approaches regarding their segments and business tasks, but the holding will be brought to unified reporting, and a single back office will be established where possible, he stressed.^[7]"

2018: Creation of a holding company

Anton Cherepennikov created X Holding on December 6, 2018 to consolidate IT assets. Under the management of the company, 23 projects will be combined, including the developer of solutions for the implementation of the Spring Law "Citadel," the system integrator "Outpost" and the developer of IT security products "Kryptonit."

Notes