Metronome

History

2023: Russ Outdoor bought by Metron

On June 21, 2023, the Russ Outdoor group announced the purchase of Metronom, which is an advertising operator in the St. Petersburg metro. The value of the transaction was not disclosed. The Kommersant newspaper writes that we can talk about 1.6-2 billion rubles.

As a result of the transaction, Russ Outdoor will receive the right to sell all advertising equipment of the St. Petersburg metro. By June 2023, Metron owns more than 2 thousand structures at stations - lightboxes, track shields, city-format panels, screens, advertising on escalators and 1.8 thousand cars, with the ability to place more than 140 thousand posters.

Russ Outdoor announced the purchase of Metronom

Russ Outdoor expects that thanks to the high expertise of Metronom, the advertising segment in the metro will significantly strengthen, and the market will have the opportunity for new placement formats. Transit advertising is one of the key assets of the group. Earlier, in October 2021, Russ Outdoor acquired nebo.digital, an advertising operator in the Moscow metro.

The consolidation of all transit advertising in Moscow and St. Petersburg under the management of one company will allow Russ to significantly increase audience reach and offer advertisers a single placement standard, "said Boris Peshnyak, Commercial Director of Russ Outdoor.

Andrei Baiduzhiy, director of the all-Russian outdoor advertising booking service all-billboards, in a conversation with the publication (the article was published on June 21, 2023), noted that recently the situation around the sale of advertising in the St. Petersburg metro has heated up due to statements by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The head PMC Wagner recently recalled several times scandals related to the non-market nature of the contests at which the advertising contractor of the second largest metro in the country was chosen, and connected him with Alexander Nevzorov [recognized], Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation foreign agent- he explained.

In such conditions, according to the expert, the owners of Metronom decided not to wait for the expiration of the contract with the metro in 2027 and sell a profitable asset.^[1]

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