By Alexander Marrow
(Reuters) – A state-owned Russian bank linked to the defence sector is in talks to buy Russian consumer electronics retailer M.Video-Eldorado, the Kommersant and Vedomosti newspapers reported late on Monday, citing sources familiar with the talks.
The sale of Russia’s biggest electronics retailer to sanctioned state lender Promsvyazbank could help M.Video solve growing debt problems and draw a major listed company closer to the Russian state, the newspapers’ sources said.
One Kommersant source said the deal could be worth 300 billion roubles ($3 billion).
It would give Promsvyazbank, which provides financing for Russia’s military industrial complex, control of a marketplace at a time when President Vladimir Putin is calling for the defence sector to make more civilian consumer goods to help diversify the economy.
M.Video said it did not comment on rumours, while Promsvyazbank did not respond to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to independently confirm negotiations.
Both companies are in the race to develop online marketplaces in Russia, along with specialist e-commerce companies such as Wildberries and Ozon, internet giant Yandex, and deep-pocketed banks including dominant lender Sberbank.
M.Video, which sells consumer electronics and home appliances at its around 1,240 stores across Russia, has been growing its online presence in earnest since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Promsvyazbank sells similar goods in partnership with retailer Svyaz ON, where it also offers banking and other financial services both on- and offline.
DEBT CONCERNS
Competition and high interest rates are pressuring large retailers such as M.Video, which has been working to improve efficiency, including by opening more compact stores, analysis firm INFOLine’s general director Mikhail Burmistrov told Reuters.
M.Video posted a record net loss of 10.3 billion roubles ($104 million) in the first half of last year and had total financial liabilities of 91.0 billion roubles, the company’s financial reports showed.
Its high debt burden has made the news about the search for a buyer or new major shareholder unsurprising, said BCS World of Investment analysts.
Putin last month set a target for Russia’s stock market capitalisation to roughly double to two-thirds of gross domestic product by 2030, a tall order given it is closed to Western capital.
M.Video’s shares were 2.1% lower at 1414 GMT, having touched a near four-month high on Monday.
The group’s CEO Bilan Uzhakhov became its majority shareholder in July, indirectly owning 53.63% of its shares through a number of companies, news agencies reported.
($1 = 98.5455 roubles)
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Jan Harvey)
