Kommersant Again Uncovers the Secret of the Firm
Gazprominvestholding head Alisher Usmanov has begun to assemble a media holding around Kommersant Publishing House. On Friday, Kommersant concluded a deal to acquire Secret of the Firm Publishing House, including the Internet publication Gazeta.ru. Analysts note that the new acquisition enables Kommersant to remain in the top five largest publishers in the rapidly consolidating Russian media market. Usmanov acquired Kommersant Publishing House from Badri Patarkatsishvili in the late summer of this year for, Kommersant has learned, $270 million.
Kommersant general director Demyan Kudryavtsev told Kommersant on Friday that the weekly magazines Sekret firmy (Secret of the Firm), Vse yasno (Everything Is Clear) and Imeesh pravo (You Have the Right), acquired from Secret of the Firm Publishing House, will become part of Kommersant Publishing House, while Gazeta.ru will continue to operate separately. Kudryavtsev added that some of the funds used for the acquisition came from Kommersant, and some came from companies belonging to Usmanov. Secret of the Firm co-owner Alexander Loktev told Kommersant that the integration of the magazines into Kommersant will probably take three months. Analysts estimate that the value of that deal was around $40 million.
Secret of the Firm Publishing House was founded in October 2004 around the magazine of the same name that began in 2001 as a supplement to Kommersant-Dengi. Until recently, it also published the weekly newspaper Business. The publishing house bought Gazeta.ru in November 2005 for an estimated $5-10 million. That website has 490,000 visitors in October 2006. More than 70 percent of the publishing house is owned by the Cube Capital UK Ltd. investment fund. The remaining stock belongs to Loktev and managing director Yury Katsman. The company's proceeds last year, according to Russian accounting standards, was 216.75 million rubles, and net loss 323.56 million rubles.
Secret of the Firm shareholders began looking for a buyer for their assets in the spring of this year. Rodionov Publishing House agreed to buy Business in November, but later refused. That newspaper was sold to Moskovskie Novosti media holding owner Arkady Gaidamak this month.
Experts say that Gazeta.ru was the most valuable asset in the Secret of the Firm holding and that the holding's owners sold at the right time. “This year has been precedent-setting for the price of media assets,” commented general director of the Mediamark agency Konstantin Isakov. “Demand significantly exceeds supply.”
Yulia Kulikova, Sergey Sobolev
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 25, 2006
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Photo: Valery Melnikov
