The Bell found out about the reluctance of the owner of Avito to sell it VK

According to the publication, VK offered 65-80 billion rubles for the purchase of the service, while the Dutch Prosus estimates the asset at 213 billion rubles. In addition, the owner of Avito believes

The owner of Avito, the Dutch Prosus (part of the South African investment holding Naspers), does not want to sell the service to VK and is trying to find another, “more distant from the state” buyer. it is reported by The Bell, citing six sources familiar with the negotiations.

According to the interlocutors of the publication, in addition to “proximity to the state”, the money that VK is ready to pay for Avito became a stumbling block. So, the Russian company estimates the business at 65–80 billion rubles, or $1.2–1.5 billion at the current exchange rate, but Prosus initially wanted to sell the business for $4 billion (about 213 billion rubles).

The organizer of the deal on the part of the seller is Morgan Stanley, one of the sources told The Bell. Offers to buy Avito were initially received by several large Russian businessmen and companies, but none of them were ready to buy at such a price, including businessman Vladimir Potanin, another source from among potential buyers added.

Prosus is in a hurry to make a deal, but the company is not ready to sell cheaply, another source of The Bell specified: “They have become hostages of their own profitability.” At the same time, $4 billion is no longer a market price, according to another source from among the contenders for the purchase of the service. “Based on the current market valuation of 4-6 EBITDA, the company should be worth between $1-2 billion,” he said.

Another interlocutor of The Bell in the market said that several funds are ready to unite into a consortium to compete for the asset. One of the major Russian funds confirmed to The Bell its participation in the fight for Avito.

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Nevertheless, all the interlocutors of the publication agreed that Avito for VK is a good opportunity to attract a new and retain an old audience, so the company "will use all its lobbying resources to win."

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RBC sent a request to Prosus. Representatives of VK and Avito declined to comment.

BLOOMBERG learned about the negotiations between VK and Potanin with Prosus on the purchase of Avito Business

In mid-June, Bloomberg reported that VK was negotiating with the Dutch Prosus to buy Avito. According to agency sources, in addition to Avito Prosus, it can also sell its 25.7% stake in the VK holding.

Avito is part of the OLX Group, which manages over 20 brands in the classifieds market. The latter belongs to the Prosus group, which is a division of the South African holding Naspers (the holding consolidated Avito in 2019).

It is also the most popular online classifieds platform in RUSSIA, according to App Annie and SimilarWeb. The daily audience of the platform is 22 million people.

The company has been operating in Russia for 15 years. The number of active ads on Avito today exceeds 90 million.

At the end of March, it became known about the separation of Avito from OLX Group into a separate company, after which Prosus became the direct owner of 100% in Avito Holding LLC. The company continued to be headed by Vladimir Pravdivy with the current team of top managers.

On May 20, Prosus announced that it was beginning to search for a buyer for the asset in connection with the withdrawal from Russia. We are talking about the complete or partial sale of the company; in addition, an IPO is also considered as one of the options, a Kommersant source said.

As Finam analyst Leonid Delitsyn specified to the newspaper, VK's interest in Avito is "logical". “VK has a much less successful competitor Avito - Yula. In addition, VK is traditionally not very successful in creating its own services, but it is successful in acquiring third-party assets,” the expert noted. According to Delitsyn, Avito can now cost about 67 billion rubles.

According to Raiffeisenbank analyst Sergei Libin, prior to the start of the special operation, Avito could be valued at 500-600 billion rubles, but at present the company's value can be no more than 100 billion rubles.