Kismet Capital Group Kismet Capital Group

Kismet Capital Group ("Kismet Capital Group") is an investment group founded in 2016. Ivan Tavrin As of October 2021, Kismet owns a media holding, Media-1 a controlling stake in the tower company "."Vertical

History

2023

2023: Being sanctioned in the US

In December 2023, Ivan Tavrin and related companies were under maximum US sanctions. In particular, Kismet Capital Group Kismet Telecom Infrastructure LLC, Kismet Capital Group LLC and Kismet Consulting LLC were included in the sanctions list.

PPR Purchase

The investment group Kismet Capital Group of the ex-head of MegaFon Ivan Tavrin acquired from the American Fleetcor Technologies 100% of Advanced Payment Solutions LLC (PPR), a large Russian fintech operator of services for business. This deal was announced on August 15, 2023. Read more here.

Repurchase Option Agreement for the Purchase of Henkel Assets in Russia

By April 2023, Henkel had agreed with the buyer of its Russian assets - a consortium of investors that includes Augment Investments, Kismet Capital Group and Elbrus Services - about a buyback option, citing the company's CFO Marco Liberty told Reuters. In May 2023, Henkel announced the closure of the transaction and named its value - 54 billion rubles. Read more here.

Disclosure of the amount of the transaction for the purchase of a stake in HeadHunter - $147.3 million

The company Kismet Capital Group of the ex-head of MegaFon Ivan Tavrin revealed the cost of buying a stake in HeadHunter. She appears in documents that were transferred to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in late January 2023. Read more here.

Buying a 22.68% stake in HeadHunter

Kismet Capital Group of the ex-head of MegaFon Ivan Tavrin bought more than 20% of the shares of the recruiting HeadHunter (HH). This became known on January 11, 2023. Read more here.

2022

Agreement to purchase Naspers' stake in Avito

On October 14, 2022, Avito and Kismet Capital Group announced the conclusion of an agreement. The Russian investment holding intends to buy out 100% of Avito's stake from the South African holding Naspers.

Investing in Kodland Online School

On January 11, 2022, it became known about the investment of $9 million in Kodland. According to the press service of the online programming school for children, the venture capital fund Redseed invested the most in the startup as part of a funding round. In addition, Baring Vostok, Kismet, Flyer One Ventures and I2BF partner Leksander Nevinsky invested in Kodland. Read more here.

Purchase of telecom company "Russian Towers"

On January 10, 2022, it was announced the sale of the Russian Towers Group of Companies to the structures of the investment company Kismet Capital Group (KCG), owned by the ex-head of MegaFon Ivan Tavrin. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. It is only noted that the transaction was financed at the expense of KCG's own funds, as well as a loan from Sberbank. Read more here.

2021

Kismet Capital Group Ivan Tavrin registered "New Towers," but does not say why

Structures of Kismet Capital Group Ivan Tavrin registered the company JSC "New Towers," which was headed by the general director of the operator "Vertical" Evgeny Chermashentsev. As Yevgeny Chermashentsev told TAdviser, New Towers is a purely technical company.

"I will not tell you for what purposes the company was created: for a deal with the First Tower Company, or for other projects," the general director of the New Towers company declined to answer.

Kismet Capital Group owner Ivan Tavrin also declined to comment on the investment firm's activity, telling TAdviser he was not prepared to comment on the deals not closed.

Kismet Capital Group Ivan Tavrin filed a petition with the FAS to buy Russian Towers. The photo is RBC

At the same time, a source familiar with the situation said that the investment company Kismet Capital Group, most likely, created "New Towers" precisely to complete the transaction with Megafon (more). And also for further expansion in the tower infrastructure market. According to the source, now Kismet Capital Group has launched a cycle of negotiations with the Russian Towers company, and has already filed a petition with the FAS to acquire the company. In addition, according to the source, the tower infrastructure of the MTS operator "Tower Infrastructure Company," which today has more than 23 thousand towers, will be put up for sale in the spring.

"Russian Towers" is also interested in another active market participant - a company Service Telecom that has acquired more than 15 thousand towers "" VimpelCom(more). The press service of the company did not comment on the interest in buying Russian Towers.

Alexander Chub, president of the Russian Towers group of companies, responding to a TAdviser request, did not rule out the possibility of selling the company.

The shareholders of the Russian Towers are international financial institutions and investment funds. A characteristic feature of such shareholders is the format of investments, in which after a certain number of years the company's shares are sold to fix profits from investments. Most of the Russian Towers shareholders invested in the company about 10 years ago, and the time is coming for exit. The interest of new investors in the company is obvious - Russian Towers is today the largest, fastest growing and most technological infrastructure operator. We're at the peak of our form and it's certainly getting attention. During the year, we had numerous meetings with investors interested in participating in the "Russian Towers," - commented Alexander Chub.

At the same time, according to an informed source, another major player in the tower infrastructure may appear on the market. Thus, the operator Tele2, owned by Rostelecom, also allocated the tower business into a separate structure. And now, according to the source, the company is considering several development options: sale, transfer to management or aggressive expansion with the purchase of market participants in partnership with VTB Group.

Creation of an independent federal player in the Russian tower infrastructure market

On October 27, 2021, MegaFon informed TAdviser that it had agreed with Kismet Capital Group on a deal that would create an independent federal player in the Russian tower infrastructure market. Read more here.

Kismet Acquisition One merger with mobile game developer Nexters

In August 2021 Kismet Acquisition One Corp , she completed a merger with the developer (mobile games Nexters the value of the combined company was $1.9 billion). More. here