RU-Center Group

Aktivs

At the beginning of 2017, the Ru-Center Group included:

• Ru-Center,
• "Recorder P01,"
• "Reggae ,"
• "Hosting Center,"
• Spaceweb,
• «Peterhost».

History

2024: Connection of customer identification through Public services

RU-CENTER has launched simplified user identification when establishing a new contract for services or identifying an existing one - now users will be able to confirm their identity through Public services (ESIA). The company announced this on May 14, 2024.

Enhanced customer identification hosting-providers required within the framework of compliance with the amendments to the Law "On Information" of July 31, 2023. According to the latest requirements, providers can provide services only to customers who have confirmed their identity in one of several ways, including personal provision of documents, use, unified biometric system EDS transfer from the client's account or using ESIA.

A pilot project to connect RU-CENTER information systems to the ESIA for identification and authentication of applicants in electronic form was worked out by the company with the Ministry of Digital Development and other government bodies. As of May 2024, identification through Public services is available only for individuals. It is assumed that after testing the mechanics, the RU-CENTER experience will be replicated to the rest of the hosting and domain market.

RU-CENTER, as a supplier of most of the most popular sites in, RuNet has always kept issues cyber security and transparency a priority. Against the background of growth phishing and other types on attacks the infrastructure of providers, deanomization of users is a natural step. At the same time, the strengthening of protection should not occur due to a decrease in the convenience of customers. Entering through Public services as a quick and convenient solution is already actively used in and, fintech and telecom expanding this practice to other security-sensitive areas, such as Internet asset management, is logical and useful, - said the Andrey Kuzmichev general director of RU-CENTER.

RU-CENTER will use the information received from ESIA strictly for the purpose of identifying customers. To work with data in accordance with the law on personal data, a reserved infrastructure with certified equipment and protective equipment has been deployed.

2021

Sale of Ru-Center Group LLC to Ru-Web Consortium. Investments "

Consortium of private investors LLC "Ru-Web. Investments, "the leader of which is Proxima Capital Group, acquired 100% of Ru-Center Group LLC (operating on the market under the Ru-Center, R01 Registrar and SpaceWeb brands) from RBC PJSC. This was announced on September 27, 2021 by TAdviser in Proxima Capital Group. The buyer was determined as part of a tender organized by VTB Capital. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.

RBC sold Ru-Center.
Photo: png.cmtt.space

According to the SPARK-Interfax system, since September 24, Ru-Center Group LLC has been 99% owned by Ru-Web LLC . Investments, "another 1% - from JSC" Regional Network Information Center "(RSIC).

Under the terms of the transaction, in addition to funds for 100%, Ru-Center Group, RBC PJSC received a 25% stake in Ru-Web LLC. Investments. " The remaining 75% of the company belongs to a consortium of investors under the leadership of the investment company Proxima Capital Group, RBC said.

Ru-Center has significant development potential. We share the vision and strategy of the company's management and believe in its success. The consortium of investors is ready in the medium term to attract additional investments to implement the company's development strategy. Ru-Center is a profitable and promising asset for us, which, I am sure, will bring stable income to the consortium participants, - Vladimir Tatarchuk, managing partner of Proxima Capital Group, is convinced.

The representative of Proxima Capital Group also clarified that the transaction was paid from the company's own and borrowed funds.

"Our strategy is to create a market leader. We see niches where we need to go, and are open to proposals for the acquisition of companies and projects that would be complementary to our idea of ​ ​ developing an ecosystem of digital products for small and medium-sized businesses on the Ru-Center platform, "added Vladimir Tatarchuk.

For his part, Nikolai Molibog, General Director of RBC PJSC, noted that the holding is satisfied with the results of the transaction. According to him, the Ru-Center team has shown "excellent results in recent years, which has allowed the company to become an attractive investment target."

We are inspired by the prospects that are opening up for the company - together with new shareholders, we hope that Ru-Center will become a platform for the further development of the ecosystem in the market of complex digital services for small and medium-sized businesses, - Nikolai Molibog commented on the deal.

As the head of RBC explained, the development of media direction remains an important task of the media group. According to him, RBC's audience and revenue demonstrate steady growth in RBC's traditional activities - advertising services, including through the development of new projects - the paid service RBC Pro, non-advertising areas - events, RBC Trends and other new projects. Funds will be used for their development, including as part of the deal on Ru-Center Group, Nikolai Molibog said.^[1]

RBC announced a plan to sell Ru-center. Buyer found

On August 31, 2021, it became known that the holding RBC was selling its Digital Infrastructure for Business segment, the basis of which is hostingprovider Ru-Center (Ru-Center Group LLC). This is stated in the RBC report.

According to the document, in April 2021, the group approved a plan to sell this segment and began an active search for a buyer. A preliminary agreement was signed to sell this segment. The name of the buyer was not disclosed, the transaction price will be approved by September 20, 2021.

As of August 2021, the size of the net assets of the Digital Infrastructure for Business segment is 4 billion rubles.^[2]

2017: Ru-Center lawsuit to recover 20 million rubles from Panov

In September 2016, Ru-Center - filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against the former general director of the company, Alexander Panov, to recover 20.26 million rubles from him.

The statement of claim states that in December 2012 Ru-Center signed a contract worth 20.26 million rubles. with the advertising agency "Jibb" for advertising on the site zaycev.net. According to Ru-Center, the contractor did not fulfill its obligations under the contract and did not have a contractual relationship with the portal zaycev.net. The plaintiff claims that neither the contractor nor third parties had the opportunity to advertise on the specified site, and the company itself did not need this agreement. In addition, the company "Jibb," which was liquidated, had the signs of a one-day company. The plaintiff insists that these circumstances are the basis for recovering losses from Panov. RBC confirmed the filing of the lawsuit and the essence of the claims.

Panov told RNS that he did not make decisions on the conclusion of an advertising contract, the contractor and the price of the contract was determined by RBC.

disputes the contract of 2012, the contractor and the cost of which was determined by the shareholders of Ru-Center, that is, RBC. All documentation under this agreement towards Ru-Center was provided by the RBC financial service, "Panov said. He noted that "he considers the filing of a lawsuit an attempt to put pressure on the victim in a criminal case^[3]

2016

Revenue - 2.06 billion rubles (+ 15 %)

At the end of 2016, the revenue of the Ru-Center group of companies increased by 15% from 1.78 billion to 2.06 billion rubles. The group's margin was 45% and EBITDA was 43%.

Criminal case on the deprivation of Panov and Karetsky shares in one of the companies

On April 29, 2016, the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow opened a criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale, sanction - imprisonment of up to 10 years) at the request of the former shareholder of Bayt-Telecom (managed the data processing center, controlled by RBC) Alexander Panov about the deprivation of his and Yaroslav Karetsky 25% of the company's shares. This is stated in the notice in the criminal case. The decision to initiate a criminal case states that the value of 25% of BT shares was $13.4 million.

According to Panov, who is familiar with the documents of the investigation, in the circle of persons, which law enforcement agencies will check for involvement in the crime, the general director of RBC Nikolai Molibog is included, his first deputy Ekaterina Kruglova, financial director of RBC Igor Selivanov, RBC Deputy Director General for Technology Alexander Kononenko, former BT CEO Farida Karimova, Head of the RBC Security Service Alexander Zhgut, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of RBC Derk Sauer and General Director of Reconne LLC Andrei Gordeev. According to Panov, BT's assets at the time of the start of the investigation belong to the telecom operator Reconne, and the circle of persons whose possible involvement will be checked was indicated in his statement.

The Prosecutor General's Office handed over the materials on the case to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, follows from the response of the supervisory authority to Alexander Panov. The Prosecutor General's Office found that from 2009 to September 2014, Panov and Karetsky each owned 12.5% of the shares of BT CJSC, the remaining 75% belonged to the offshore Karuta Investments. RNS has at its disposal a document signed by Molibog, according to which 75% of Bayt Telecom as of September 23, 2014 belonged to RBC through offshore companies Karuta Investments, Gattico Holding, Halvertson Holdings and Pintolexa Holdings. The director of Karuta was Derk Sauer, Panov specified.

On August 29, 2014, Farida Karimova, allegedly acting as the sole shareholder of BT, signed and transferred for registration to the bodies of the Federal Tax Service of Russia in Moscow the decision to reorganize BT CJSC into InvestProekt LLC, dismiss Igor Selivanov, General Director of BT and appoint himself to this position, as well as the transfer of property from Byte-Telecom CJSC to InvestProekt LLC, the document says. Then InvestProekt was annexed to Drok LLC, registered in the Republic of Tatarstan, "at the place of mass registration of legal entities and not carrying out actual activities," the Prosecutor General's Office established.

"In this regard, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, in accordance with Article 37 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, materials of verification on the facts of fraudulent actions in relation to property belonging to you (Panov. - RNS) and Y. V. Karetsky, as well as the illegal formation (reorganization) of a legal entity, were sent to the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, "the document says

Panov claims that Karimova liquidated several legal entities that were previously members of RBC.

RBC CEO Nikolai Molibog wrote on his Facebook:

"We have not seen any ruling, we do not know what is written in it, and we do not even know whether RBC or any of RBC's employees are mentioned in this ruling." "We understand that any hint of news about us is now" hot pies, "but let's see this decree, understand whether it is related to RBC, and then we will give our comments," Molibog wrote

Wave of migration from Ru-Center to Reg.ru

In April 2016, Pavel Gross-Dneprov cited statistics on the number of domains for April and March 2016 for a number of Russian registrars. All of them received some positive number of new registrations. The exception is Ru-Center. This registrar owned by RBC lost more than 40,000 domains in March 2016, more than 6,000 more in 5 days of April (note: there are other registrars owned by RBC on the chart, they have normal growth, instead of a dramatic fall). Most of the March registrations fell on REG.RU - charts of the fall in Ru-Center, and the increase in the number of registrations in Reg.ru, in fact, "mirror" for each other.

Senator asks FAS to check the fact of rising prices for domains in Ru-Center

In March 2016, it became known that a member of the Federation Council Anton Belyakov appealed to the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) with a request to check the activities of the largest Russian domain registrar Ru-Center. This was written by the "Parliamentary newspaper."

Belyakov explained that the reason for the appeal was complaints from Ru-Center customers, who said that since March 31, 2016, the company has been raising prices for domain extensions by at least four times.

"Ru-Center, taking advantage of its dominant position in the market, actually put its customers in bondage conditions. At the same time, it remains unclear for what reasons the company's management proceeded when it decided to raise prices for its services several times at a time, "Belyakov said

Since March 31, Ru-Center has been abolishing partner tariffs and introducing a club program instead, which provides for a fixed fee from 990 rubles to 44.9 thousand rubles a year, depending on the amount of the discount. The registrar's partners, who will not join the club program until the end of the month, will be served at retail rates from March 31. Changes in working conditions with partners led to an increase in the cost of services, noted Roem.ru.

2014

Alexander Panov leaves the company, Nikolai Molibog CEO

In May 2014, Alexander Panov left the post of general director of Ru-Center. As he himself explained on his Facebook, he had to do this by decision of the shareholders. His place was taken by Nikolai Molibog, General Director of RBC. At the same time, in a standard press release based on the results of the reshuffle, the company does not thank Alexander Panov for the work done and does not note his contribution to the development of the company's business.

According to Panov, Ru-Center fulfilled all the financial indicators, and in return, in front of the employees, the holding's management brought him out of the office as a criminal.

Renaming to RU-Center Group

Hosting Community has been transformed into RU-Center Group. A large-scale rebranding of the group of companies and all its assets has begun.

2013: Purchase of Reggae Business

In the 3rd quarter of 2013, Hosting Community completed the acquisition of 100% of Reggy Business LLC, which provides services under the brand name Reggi.ru. The company became the third ICANN-accredited registrar in the group and the sixth company providing services. hosting

Also in the third quarter, work continued to expand the geography of RU-CENTER offices in Russia and abroad. In particular, new representative offices of the company were opened in Yakutsk, Irkutsk, Petrozavodsk and Tokyo (Japan).

2012: Yaroslav Karetsky left the company

One of the top managers of Hosting Community Karetsky Yaroslav Vladimirovich left the company at the initiative of the management of the RBC holding.

2011

Purchase of Ru-Center for $35 million

In March 2011, it became known that Hosting Community buys the largest domain name registrar in Runet - ^[4] Ru-Center RBC group ^[4]. As part of the preparation of the deal, the managing partner of Hosting Community, Alexander Panov, became the external manager of Ru-Center, and the general director of Ru-Center, Alexei Lesnikov, moved to the position of his adviser. Panov will be engaged in the observance of the interests of Hosting Community in the process of merger, control of financial flows and any significant events of Ru-Center.

$35 million - at this price, former Ru-Center shareholders sold the company to Hosting Community in March 2011, a source close to RBC shareholders said. According to him, this is about half the price discussed before the scandal in the.rf zone. This was confirmed by two sources close to sellers and buyers^[4].

Alexander Panov promises that sellers will receive money by the end of 2011. Ru-Center's revenue in 2010 amounted to about $20 million, a source familiar with his managers knows.

An agreement on the deal was reached back in 2010, now Hosting Community needs to audit the assets of the acquired company, says Panov. The deal is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year, and its financial terms have not been disclosed. It is assumed that Hosting Community will become the sole owner of all assets of the Ru-Center group, while further activities of Hosting Community in the field of domain name registration will be carried out on the basis of Ru-Center.

The scandal with the.RF domain zone, in which Ru-Center was involved, did not affect the company's assessment: the parties made a fundamental decision on the deal even before it began, Panov and Ru-Center representative Andrei Vorobyov clarify.

For the proceedings in the conflict around Ru-Center, a commission was created from State Duma deputies and representatives of the Internet public. The commission considered that Ru-Center violated the registration rules, and the former Deputy Minister of Communications Aleksei Soldatov, who was a member of the Council of the CC with the right of veto, lobbied the interests of the company. However, the question of whether or not to select domains sold at auctions has not yet been resolved.

Alexander Panov was a member of this commission.

"My position is different from the one that Ru-Center has so far occupied: there were violations of accreditation rules by the company, but no facts of monopoly collusion were found," Panov told CNews. "In the near future, as a member of the CC Council, I intend to initiate a meeting and put forward a proposal to resolve the situation." Koleniskov welcomed the emergence of an initiative to get out of the conflict

FAS forces Ru-Center to pay a fine of 239 million rubles

In 2011, the FAS found that Ru-Center conspired with five companies to partition the domain registration market in зоне.рф. The agency then ordered the registrar to return about 239 million rubles to the budget. The case reached the Supreme Arbitration Court, which agreed with the conclusions of the FAS, which found Ru-Center guilty of unfair competition.

2009

Hosting Community includes:

• Ru-Center
• Guarantor-Park-Telecom (brand R01),
• Registrar "Centrohost"
• "Hosting Center,"
• SpaceWeb,
• Peterhost
• Reggi.ru

The group included the hosting provider Highway, Users, Arbatek, as well as the leading Ukrainian Internet company Ukraine-Khost LLC.

January 19, 2009. Centrohost began direct name registration in.COM and.NET domains.

On March 24, 2009, Hosting Center opened common access to domain registration in the.tel zone.

April 1, 2009. Registrar R01 begins registration of second-level domains in the.TEL domain zone

June 29, 2009. The Hosting Center registered the 100,000th domain in the RU zone.

August 15, 2009. The centrohost is moving to an updated domain control panel offering new services, features and capabilities.

September 11, 2009. Registrar R01 began providing a domain sales service through its own auction.

November 16, 2009. Registrar R01 opens the reception of applications for priority registration of domains in the.RF zone.

2008: Accreditation by ICANN Corporation

March 7, 2008. Hosting Center Ukraine has registered a hundred thousandth domain name in the COM.UA domain.

April 24, 2008. Hosting Center has become a gold partner of Parallels.

April 25, 2008. Registrar R01 has begun registering multilingual domains in the.SU zone.

June 3, 2008. Garant-Park-Telecom is a certified hosting partner of UMI.CMS.

July 09, 2008. The Hosting Center, as the main means of protection against malware and network attacks, has established the ESET NOD32 Business Edition antivirus solution from ESET.

On September 4, 2008, a significant event took place in the life of the holding - the Centrohost domain registrar opened in 2005 received accreditation from ICANN Corporation (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - an international non-profit organization that regulates issues related to domain names), which allowed direct registration of resources in international domains.

September 12, 2008 - Centrohost became the first accredited registrar of the KZ zone in Russia.

October 1, 2008. SpaceWeb has opened access to the UMI.CMS Free installation.

October 23, 2008. The number of registered SpaceWeb partners has exceeded 10,000.

November 17, 2008. Hosting Center receives Licenses of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation for the provision of telematics services (No. 45882 of 17.11.08) and for data communication services, with the exception of data communication services for the purpose of voice information transmission (No. 45883 of 17.11.08).

November 21, 2008. Registrar R01 begins registration of second-level domains in domain zones:.COM,.ORG,.NET,.BIZ,.INFO,.NAME,.TV,.ME,.MOBI,.ASIA,.US,.IN,.CC,.WS,.BZ,.MN.

2007: Ukraine-Khost is part of the holding

Ukraine-Khost LLC is part of the Hosting Center.

January 22, 2007. Hosting Center and hosting provider Highway have officially announced their merger under the unified Hosting Center brand.

September 10, 2007. Garant-Park-Telecom receives a license of the Federal Agency for Construction and Housing and Communal Services for the design of buildings and structures of I and II levels of responsibility in accordance with the state standard (No. GS-1-99-02-26-0-7729384862-056909-2 of 10.09.07), as well as a license for the construction of buildings and structures of I and II levels of responsibility in accordance with the state standard (No. GS-1-99-02-27-0-7729384862-056908-2 of 10.09.07).

September 14, 2007. Hosting provider SpaceWeb The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications issues a license for the provision of telematic communication services (No. 34401 of 14.09.2007), which was successfully renewed on September 18, 2009 with license No. 53006.

October 4, 2007. SpaceWeb is launching its own Jabber server.

November 22, 2007. Joining the Hosting Center of a large Internet provider Arbatek (CJSC Arbatek).

December 28, 2007. Accreditation of the Centrohost by the Internet Development Fund as a Domain Name Registrar in the.SU zone. The ability to register domains in both Latin and Cyrillic.

2006

Launch of partner project hosting.mail.ru

February 16, 2006. Garant-Park-Telecom receives Licenses of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation for the provision of telematics services (No. 38850 of 16.02.06) and for the provision of local telephone services (No. 38851 of 16.02.06).

April 11, 2006. Opening of the office Hosting Center in St. Petersburg.

2005

September 5, 2005. The domain registrar Centrohost has been opened.

December 1, 2005. State registration of Ukraine-Khost LLC as an official registrar in Ukraine.

December 15, 2005. The merger of the Hosting Center and the hosting provider USERS (Golden Gate LLC).

2004

PeterHost.Ru was one of the initiators of the creation of the Russian Association of Hosting Providers.

2003

May 23, 2003. Garant-Park-Telecom receives licenses of the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation - for the provision of data transmission services (No. 263321 of 23.05.03) and for the provision of communication services for the provision of communication channels (No. 26550 of 05.06.03), renewed by licenses No. 57884 of 23.05.08 and No. 57885 of 05.06.08, respectively.

September 3, 2003. Garant-Park-Telecom becomes the first independent accredited registrar in Russia under an agreement with the National Internet Domain Coordination Center.

2002: Creation of "Hosting Center"

April 24, 2002. The official start of the company Hosting Center LLC.

The project LGG.ru becomes the first company to enter the Hosting Center.

Notes