Unprofitable business Tavrina buys mass market
In the near future, retail chains such as Love republic, Befree, Sela and Zarina may change ownership. LLC Radio Advertisement NN, owned by Ivan Tavrin, has already agreed on the purchase with the Federal Antimonopoly Service.
This company, in a consortium of investors, has already bought Henkel plants, and Avito on its own. At the same time, Tavrin sold Gallery, the largest outdoor advertising operator. The above retail chains are part of the Melon Fashion Group. The rights to manage it, as well as 75% in MFG Invest JSC, are going to be acquired by a Nizhny Novgorod advertising agency. The FAS has already explained that this will not affect competition in the mass market retail market.
Recently, the Swedish Eastnine was going to sell 36% in Melon Fashion Group for 15.6 billion rubles to Vladimir Paliya and his GEM Invest LLC. Last fall, oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov expressed a desire to fully include it in his AFK Sistema, which has already paid about 16 billion rubles for shares in Eastnine and East Capital Holding AB and a number of private investors. Although since then there have been no changes in the joint-stock company. LLC “Radio Advertisement NN” appeared on the market in 2017. Until now, it has only one employee. Last year, the company’s loss exceeded 20 million rubles. Its ultimate beneficiary is Ivan Tavrin, and the authorized capital is divided between Infrastructure Holding-1 LLC (99.9%) and Kismet Capital Group LLC.
Previously, Tavrin co-owned the Internet provider NetByNet and the social network VK. In the period from 2012 to 2016, he led Megafon, and in 2021 he joined Cyan as a major shareholder. He also has a Kismet company, which owns the Media-1 holding, which includes entertainment channels such as Muz-TV, Yu, Disney Channel. Tavrin bought several Russian assets from foreign companies that left the country. For example, the “daughters” of Avito, which belonged to a company from the Netherlands. This is the largest deal, which cost just over 150 billion rubles.
After Tavrin sold Gallery, Maria Komarova, who previously worked in the Saratov mayor’s office, left her post as general director. In 2017, she was involved in the development of the Internet segment of the glossy magazines Esquire, Cosmopolitan and Hearth at Independent Media. However, according to rumors, she was unable to establish relations with the shareholders of the holding, and left it rather quickly. Then there was April Group, where Komarova also managed media assets for only a few months. Her most successful collaboration was with Tavrin and his Gallery, so it is possible that their collaboration will continue in the mass market.
