On Friday, May 13, RBC reported that virtually all top managers responsible for editorial policy are leaving the holding. "Lenta.ru" understands what is happening in one of the largest media holdings in the country and what preceded the departure of the editorial management.
What's happening
The holding officially announced that project editor-in-chief Elizaveta Osetinskaya, editor-in-chief of the news agency Roman Badanin and editor-in-chief of the newspaper of the same name Maxim Solius are leaving RBC.
Nikolay Molibog, CEO of the holding, explained this by saying that the opinion of editorial bosses about the future of RBC did not coincide with the position of their leaders. “Recently, we have been talking a lot about how to further develop RBC, and in these conversations we could not reach a consensus on some important issues,” he officially stated. So we agreed to part ways.
Who will take their place has yet to be announced. Following the departure of the tops, some employees of the united editorial office of RBC also announced their intention to quit on social networks.
After the announcement of the departure of the top management, RBC shares on the stock exchange in price.
What was before
In April, it became known that in the fall of 2016, Elizaveta Osetinskaya would retire while studying at Stanford University under the Innovation in Journalism program. It was assumed that the training would last one academic year, after which the editor-in-chief would continue to manage the editorial boards of RBC projects.
However, later, on April 20, the media holding announced that Osetinskaya would step down from management a few months before her academic leave - after the May holidays. Representatives of the holding claimed that her absence would be just temporary. It was reported that editorial projects in her absence would be managed by editors-in-chief, including Badanin and Solus.
How Osetinskaya's vacation was linked to searches at Mikhail Prokhorov's
The official news about the premature leave of the top manager appeared almost simultaneously with reports of searches in the Onexim group, the structure that controls RBC and other companies of Mikhail Prokhorov. At the same time, inspectors did not come to RBC itself, a representative of the media holding told Lente.ru.
The media wrote that the searches at Onexim may have political overtones: the authorities are allegedly trying to put pressure on Prokhorov to sell RBC. According to another version, they are trying to force the billionaire to sell the energy company Quadra. Shortly before the arrival of law enforcement agencies at Onexim, a story was shown on TV about violations in the work of Quadra. The media also claimed that RBC, which publishes materials about Panamanian offshore companies and investigations involving large businessmen and high-ranking officials, ignores Prokhorov's energy company, which is also associated with offshore companies.
What they say in the Kremlin
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly denied media reports about the pressure of the Kremlin on Prokhorov because of RBC articles that allegedly irritate the authorities. Peskov said that he communicates with Osetinskaya, as well as with many other media leaders. Shortly before her departure, the press secretary of the head of state met with her, but they did not discuss Osetinskaya's vacation, according to Peskov.
Prokhorov sells or does not sell RBC?
At the end of April, the media reported that after the searches, Prokhorov seriously thought about selling both RBC and Kvadra. The fact that a businessman from time to time negotiates the sale of a media holding is, in fact, not news.
It is known that he has been looking for a buyer since at least August 2014 (although representatives of the entrepreneur denied this information). Kommersant then wrote that Prokhorov needed media platforms when he was involved in politics: he was the leader of the Right Cause party, participated in the presidential race, and then headed the Civic Platform. But in 2014, the businessman retired from the affairs of the party, and subsequently spoke in favor of its complete liquidation.
Photo: Ekaterina Chesnokova / RIA Novosti
After unsuccessful attempts to make a career as a politician, Prokhorov's need for media assets disappeared, moreover, RBC worked exclusively to cover losses, and the shareholder had to invest considerable funds in it. The holding's current debt is $220 million. However, the billionaire liked what RBC journalists were doing.
How they tried to change the holding
A little over a year ago, RBC announced "Strategy 360", within which the holding should continue to live. The initiator and ideological inspirer of the document was Nikolay Molibog. “RBC's goal is to maintain revenue growth at a level no lower than the market average in the future. To achieve this goal, RBC plans to combine organic growth and profitable acquisitions in the fastest growing media segment - the Internet. RBC sees it as its key operational goal to ensure the high popularity of RBC resources among the Russian-speaking audience in the CIS countries and around the world as a whole. The main task, from the point of view of financial management, is to increase the profitability of the business," the company's website says.
However, during the two years during which Molibog ran the company, RBC generated only losses: 1.97 billion rubles in 2014 and the same amount in 2015. The holding kept afloat thanks to the sale of assets: it sold the Salon publishing house, the RBC Money payment system and Utro.ru.
Photo: Sergey Kiselev / Kommersant
There were also acquisitions. In 2014, the company bought Public.ru integrator for 19 million rubles (and 200 thousand euros to diversify revenue streams). The project was entrusted to supervise the digital director of RBC business projects Dmitry Kharitonov. Subsequently, according to the source, all activities on the project were frozen. The losses of Utro.ru alone, sold for only 30 million rubles, amounted to at least 100 million rubles in revenue per year. At least, this was the amount the publication brought in in 2013, and its daily traffic reached 400-500 thousand visitors per day.
RBC is not Prokhorov's first ambitious but failed project. In 2014, the entrepreneur paid 1 euro to the state for the innovative Yo-mobile project, on which he had high hopes before and in which he invested 150 million euros.
To whom it sells, if it sells
The sources of Gazeta.Ru call the National Media Group of Yuri Kovalchuk the most likely buyer of the media holding. At various times, the media claimed that Arkady Rotenberg, Vladimir Lisin, the Gazprom-Media holding, Zakhar Smushkin, co-owner of the Ilim group, and Grigory Berezkin, the owner of Komsomolskaya Pravda, claimed RBC.
Another version that refutes previous assumptions
The top manager of a large Russian media holding told Lente.ru that the sale of RBC had already taken place. This happened before it became known about the academic leave of Osetinskaya. However, he did not specify whether her decision to leave was independent or the new owner insisted on it.
Saved by shareholders
Gallery last disclosed financial results for 2013: in the first nine months of that year, 132 million rubles were recorded. net profit with revenue of 4.6 billion rubles.
In the same year, the group took part in the auction held in Moscow for outdoor advertising and ran into financial problems. At the auction, Gallery won 760 billboard spaces, promising to transfer 13.5 billion rubles for them over the next ten years. To participate in the auction, the group attracted a loan from Sberbank for 1.5 billion rubles. Already at the end of 2014, Gallery violated one of the loan covenants, after which Sberbank reduced the size of the credit line from 1.5 billion to 900 million rubles, and the repayment period was postponed from 2019 to April 2015, the Standard & rating agency reported at the time. Poor's. It indicated that by the end of 2014, Gallery's debt should exceed its EBITDA by 21 times, while in 2013 this ratio was only 2.5.
In 2015, Gallery came to the aid of some of its shareholders, who, as the group itself reported, paid off its debt to Sberbank in April of that year. At the same time as RBC, the structure of Gallery's owners changed: Baring Vostok structures increased their stake in the outdoor advertising operator from at least 23.15% to a controlling stake (the exact size of the stake is not known). Remained at that time the co-owner of the group and one of its founders Anatoly Mostovoy. At the beginning of 2015, he owned 6.85% of the group.
Mostovoy told RBC on Monday, July 16, that he sold his stake in Gallery a few years ago and "is no longer interested in her fate." In fact, the share was sold to the former financial director of the Kalina concern, Alexander Petrov, two RBC sources say, but Mostovoy does not confirm this information. It was not possible to contact Petrov at the time of publication.
Sberbank is still Gallery's creditor, follows from the materials of the Unified Federal Register of Significant Information on the facts of the activities of legal entities. In particular, the promissory notes of Gallary Service LLC, the main operating company of the group, as well as 100% of the shares of its subsidiary Gallery Digital LLC, are now pledged to the state bank under a credit line opened back in 2014.
Ivan Tavrin agreed with Sberbank to purchase a majority stake in Gallery, one of RBC's interlocutors notes. A spokesman for Sberbank declined to comment.
Summed up Moscow
RBC's interlocutors, in the absence of financial indicators, found it difficult to assess the current value of Gallery. In their opinion, the group, most likely, has been unprofitable in the last two years. The main reason for this is the high annual payments following the results of the 2013 Moscow auction. Their base size is almost 1.4 billion rubles. per year, but the last time, in December 2017, Gallery transferred only 772 million rubles. - the amount can be reduced if the winning bidder failed to install the structures for reasons beyond his control.
Russ Outdoor, which in 2013 won at the auction for 27.2 billion rubles. almost 2.2 thousand places for shields and small format structures, annual deductions to the Moscow budget account for almost a third of all income, according to the company's latest available reports for 2016. Then Russ Outdoor recorded 1.2 billion rubles. net loss with revenue of almost 9 billion rubles. In 2015, the market leader was forced to restructure a loan to its creditor and major shareholder, VTB (the state bank owns 26.3% of Russ Outdoor).
Photo: Valentina Svistunova / Interpress / TASS
To reduce operating costs, the owners of Russ Outdoor and Gallery wanted to merge the business, but, like RBC, the French JCDecaux, which owns 25% of Russ Outdoor, is opposed to the merger.
Tavrin also negotiated with the owners of Russ Outdoor, RBC sources say, specifying that in this case, unlike Gallery, there are no agreements yet. RBC sent a request to Russ Outdoor.
Faith in digital
Ivan Tavrin now fully owns the YuTV television holding, which manages the Yu, Muz TV, Disney channels and is the owner of 75% of STS Media (STS, Domashny, Che, CTC Love and CTC Kids "). Until December 2017, Alisher Usmanov had 58.3% of YuTV, but the business partners parted ways. According to sources close to Usmanov, he gave up television assets, and Tavrin, in turn, lost his minimum three percent stake in USM Holdings Ltd, the parent company for Usmanov's assets. A USM spokesperson declined to comment on this information.
Tavrin is also the main owner of the Select Radio holding, which manages 79 regional radio stations. Behind Last year businessman new stations in Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod and Vologda, because, as his friends say, he believes in this business: local radio stations compete the least with the Internet for advertisers' budgets.
In outdoor advertising, Tavrin is attracted by the prospects of digital formats that are gaining distribution, RBC sources explain. According to Espar-Analytic, at the end of 2017, Gallery had 158 such structures, Russ Outdoor had 105. At the same time, the "figure" provided more than 22% of Gallery's possible revenue and 15% of Russ Outdoor.
CEO of RBC Group of Companies
Holds the position of CEO RBC since January 2014. Member of the Board of Directors of PJSC RBC since January 2014. From August 2013 until his appointment as CEO of the company, he was RBC's First Deputy CEO.
From 2000 to 2003, he worked as a manager of a network of regional enterprises of CJSC Kommersant. Publishing House". From 2003 to 2004, he held the position of Deputy Managing Director of the socio-political newspaper Gazeta. Since 2004, he worked at the Afisha company, where he rose from the director of distribution and regional development to the general director of the Afisha publishing house. From July 2010 to May 2013 he was the General Director of the united company Afisha-Rambler. In 2011, he entered Odgers Berndtson's "Rating of Young Russian Media Managers" in the "Internet Projects" category with the highest rating (AA). In 2013, he entered the top three leaders of the CIS in the field of media business according to the Association of Managers of Russia. Included in the top ten managers in the Media Business category of the Top 1000 Russian Managers rating.
Graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Siberian Technical University of Communications and Informatics.
Ekaterina Kruglova
Deputy General Director of the RBC Group of Companies, General Director of the RU-CENTER Group of Companies
He has been Deputy CEO of RBC since December 2013. She began her career in the media business as an analyst in the development directorate of NTV-Plus in 2002. In 2003, she moved to the Afisha company as an analyst in the business analysis department. In the period from 2005 to 2010, she held the positions of director of business analysis and deputy general director of the Afisha company. After the merger of Afisha and Rambler in 2010, she was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the merged company, where she worked until May 2013.
Ekaterina graduated from the Faculty of Sociology of the Moscow Pedagogical state university, and also received an MBA degree from the Moscow International Higher School of Economics Mirbis.
Igor Selivanov
Financial Director of the RBC Group of Companies
Financial Director of the RBC Group of Companies since December 2014. Since May 2014, Igor Selivanov has served as Director for Economics and Finance at RU-CENTER Group. In 2003, he joined RIA Novosti, where he held various positions in the financial unit. From September 2011 to March 2014, Igor was Deputy Editor-in-Chief of RIA Novosti for Development. In 2005, Igor was awarded the degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences. In 2011 he received the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants ACCA DipIFR diploma. One of the top three CFOs in the Media Business category of the Top 1000 Russian Managers rating.
Julia Shulga
Deputy General Director of the RBC Group of Companies for Human Resources Management
Since September 2013, he has been RBC's Deputy CEO for Human Resources. He has been working in the IT and media industry for over 15 years. From the beginning of 2011 to July 2013, she implemented the HR strategy of the consolidated company Afisha-Rambler in the position of HR Director. Prior to this, for more than three years she determined the strategy for training and development of employees as the head of personnel training at Yandex. Included in the list of the best HR directors in the Media Business category of the Top 1000 Russian Managers.
Graduated from MTUCI with a degree in software and received a second higher education majoring in Organizational Management.
Timofey Shcherbakov
Legal Director of RBC Group of Companies, General Director of RBC TV Channel
Timofey Shcherbakov has served as Director of Legal Affairs for the RBC Group of Companies since December 2015. Timofey has over 15 years of legal experience in the media business. He worked in both government and commercial structures, including heading the legal departments of the Profmedia broadcasting corporation, the RIA Novosti media holding, and supervising the legal activities of the Russian Academy of Radio. He is an expert of working groups in executive and legislative authorities. Since August 2016 - General Director of the RBC TV channel. He is a member of the presidium of the Foundation for the Promotion of Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development, ensuring the legal security of the foundation's activities. Ranked second among legal directors in the Media Business category of the Top 1000 Russian Managers rating.
Graduated from the faculty of jurisprudence at Moscow State Technical University. N. E. Bauman.
Andrey Sikorsky
Marketing Director of the RBC Group of Companies
In July 2014, he headed RBC's project marketing department. Prior to that, from July 2010 to March 2014, he worked at RIA Novosti, where he was first Deputy Director of the Marketing and Business Development Directorate, and then, in 2012, headed the Marketing Directorate. From 2010 to 2012 he worked at Usabilitylab. Graduated from Moscow State Technical University "Stankin", studied at the Russian State Humanitarian University, lecturer at Moscow State Technical University "Stankin". Included in the Odgers Berndtson "Rating of Young Media Managers of Russia", ranks second among marketing directors in the Media Business category of the Top 1000 Russian Managers rating.
Igor Dergunov
Deputy General Director for Economics, Finance and Investments
From 1988 to 1990 he worked as an economist at the Ministry of Finance of the USSR. From 1990 to 1996 he worked at Menatep Bank and Most Bank, in 1996 he became an adviser to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. From 1997 to 1998 he worked as the head of the department of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. From 1999 to 2003 - Deputy Chairman of the Menatep Spb bank. From 2005 to 2011, he served as Chairman of the Management Board of the Maritime Bank.
Graduated from the Faculty of Economic Cybernetics of the Moscow Institute of National Economy (now Plekhanov Russian University of Economics) and postgraduate studies at the Financial Institute under the Government of the Russian Federation. He holds an MBA from Hyward University (California) and an EMBA from Aalto University (Helsinki).
Alexander Zhgut
Deputy General Director of the RBC Group of Companies for Security
Since 2002, he has held senior positions in state and commercial companies, including the banking and manufacturing sectors of the economy. He took part in the creation of integrated systems for ensuring the security of objects of national importance and large industrial companies, was engaged in the implementation of new projects in the field of informatization, information security and engineering and technical protection within the framework of state programs. He has expertise in the field of anti-crisis management, business diversification, control and audit activities, participated in the creation of a system for monitoring the spending of state budget funds. He was directly involved in the creation of a system of state and municipal procurement in the Russian Federation.
He graduated from two higher military academies and two civilian universities, including the Air Force Engineering Academy named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (1995), Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov (2005). Specialist in jurisprudence, economics and business management, has state awards.
Top management of RBC
Ludmila Gurey
Commercial Director of RBC
He has been Corporate Commercial Director of RBC since January 2014. In 1998, she began her career at Sanoma Independent Media, where she worked her way up from advertising assistant to commercial director of the Cosmopolitan group of publications and corporate director of SIM online sales. She is a participant in the Top 1000 Russian Managers rating in the Commercial Directors nomination in the Media Business category, and is included in the Ernst & Young Business Women rating.
She graduated from the Higher School of Economics with a degree in business economics.
Alexey Abakumov
RBC Development Director
He has been RBC Development Director since 2017. From 1985 to 1991 he worked on foreign broadcasting of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting Service, in the World Broadcasting Service in Russian as an editor and presenter of programs. From 1991 to 1993 - presenter, head of the Voice of Russia radio station, deputy director of the Directorate of Information Programs of Radio Russia. From 1993 to 1997 - Director of the Directorate of Information Programs of Radio Russia. He worked in "hot spots": author and producer of documentaries about military operations in Yugoslavia (long business trips in the early 90s to all the republics of the former SFRY), the situation in Albania (1991-1995), the war in Libya (2011) and etc. In 1997, he became deputy editor-in-chief of the news program Vesti, from 1999 to 2005 he was deputy general director of Vesti. From 2005 to 2007 - Deputy General Director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. Since 2007, he began working at REN-TV as Deputy General Director for Information Broadcasting and Editor-in-Chief of REN-TV. In 2012, he became the Deputy General Director of Rumedia.
Graduated in 1985 from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.
Elizaveta Golikova
She began her career as a journalist at Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1996. Since 2001, she worked at Kommersant, where she worked her way up from a correspondent in the finance department to the editor-in-chief of the kommersant.ru website. In 2005, she participated in the launch of the Kommersant-Ukraine project. In 2013, she joined TASS as head of the Internet projects service, editor-in-chief of tass.ru. She was responsible for the relaunch of the tass.ru website, led the project to create and maintain the official portal for fans of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, welcome2018.com.
Graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.
Igor Trosnikov
Co-head of the united editorial office of RBC
Since 1992, he worked at Kommersant, held the position of deputy editor-in-chief, headed the business information block of the publishing house, and was responsible for the launch of Kommersant-Ukraine. In 2013, he moved to TASS, where he launched the economic information service, and then reformed the news service. Responsible for the work of six socio-political editions.
Graduated from the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.
Valery Igumenov
Editor-in-chief of RBC magazine
He has been the editor-in-chief of RBC magazine since May 2014. He worked as a correspondent, executive editor of the Interfax news agency, correspondent, editor, deputy editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine.
Graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.
Ilya Doronov
Managing Director of RBC TV channel
He began working on television in 2000 in Vladimir. In 2002, he began working in Moscow as a correspondent and presenter for the VKT television company, and then as a correspondent for REN TV. Since March 2004, he has been a news anchor on REN TV. In 2015, he was appointed Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Life News TV channel. Since December 2016, he has been the presenter of the Russia 24 TV channel. The owner of TEFI as the best presenter of an information program (2012).
Kirill Titov
Director for B2C digital products at RBC
He started his career as a programmer, having worked from 2000 to 2006 at the RusAero Central Aviation Administration, the Kuntsevo Technical Center, and Musa Motors. In 2007, he joined RBC and worked his way up from project manager to development director and head of B2C digital products.
Graduated from the Moscow Technological University (MIREA), majoring in software for computer technology and automated systems.
Irina Mitrofanova
Director of RBC Publishing House, Director of RBC Conferences
He has been the director of the RBC publishing house since July 2016. From 1995 to 1998 she worked as a commercial operations manager at ABN AMRO. From 2001 to October 2009 she worked at Independent Media, where she rose from Head of Business Conferences to Director of Business Development at Independent Media Sanoma Magazines. In 2009, she became a member of the board of directors of the Argumenty i Fakty publishing house and a number of companies of the Media 3 holding, worked as the general director of the Argumenty i Fakty publishing house, and director of development for Media 3. Since 2012 - Director for Digital Media and Multimedia Projects of Kommersant Publishing House.
Graduated in 1992 from the Russian State Pedagogical University. A. I. Herzen.
Dmitry Kharitonov
Digital director of B2B direction
He has been the digital director of business projects at RBC since September 2013. Works in the field of Internet technologies since 1999. From 2008 to 2013, he worked at Rambler (later a merged company, Afisha-Rambler) as the head of the Infrastructure department, developing advertising technologies and data mining technologies, as well as implementing an analytics system.
Graduated from the radio-electronic faculty of the Oryol State Technical University.
Maxim Vasyukov
Deputy General Director of RBC
He has been Deputy General Director in the B2C segment since January 2017. He started his career as a journalist at Delovoy Peterburg, went from reporter to editor-in-chief and general director of DP.
Graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of St. Petersburg State University in 2005.
Top management of RU-CENTER group of companies
Andrey Kuzmichev
Deputy General Director for Products RU-CENTER
He has been Deputy General Director for Products of RU-CENTER Group since July 2014. From 2008 to 2011, Andrey worked at Yandex, where he held various positions in the development department. From August 2011 to September 2013, Andrey was responsible for the quality of products in the United Company of Afisha and Rambler. And from September 2013 to December 2014 - for the operational management of RBC entertainment products. Member of the "Rating of young media managers of Russia" Odgers Berndtson.
Graduated with honors from Moscow State Technical University. Bauman.
Anton Terekhov
Commercial Director of RU-CENTER
He holds the position of commercial director of the group of companies
RU-CENTER since 2015. He started his career in Runet in 1997 as an editor of the "Internet marketing" section of the "InfoBusiness" project of the "Computerra" publishing house. From 2001 to 2005 held the position of Marketing and Sales Director of the leading Russian web developer ADV / web-engineering co. In the period from 2006-2008 - Marketing Director of the online store OZON.ru. In 2009, Anton moved to TUI Russia and CIS, where he held the position of E-commerce director until 2011. Since 2010, he has been the CEO of SHOPOLOG. In 2011-2013 he worked as director of e-commerce at Rambler and CEO of Begun, Price.ru and Ichiba. From 2013 to 2015 he was a partner investment fund target global.
Graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University and received an MBA degree from the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation, specializing in marketing.
Evgeny Svetikov
Director of Hosting Products Department RU-CENTER
He started his career as a system administrator in 2003. In 2005-2008 - engineer of the physical laboratory of the Kurchatov Institute. From 2007 to 2016 - CTO and Development Director of the Agava hosting provider. Since 2016, he has been working at RU-CENTER as the director of the hosting products department.
Graduated from the Institute of Nano-, Bio-, Information, Cognitive and Socio-Humanitarian Sciences of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Andrey Proshletsov
Head of Hosting and Development at RU-CENTER
Joined the RU-CENTER team in 2015. From 2005 to 2006, he worked at Ipsos Central Eastern Europe as a specialist in the data analysis and processing department. From 2066 to 2008 - marketing specialist, and later executive director of the Information for Industry company. In 2008-2015 - General Director of Artektiv.
Graduated from Moscow State Technical University "Stankin" with a degree in "Marketing Enterprise Management"
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CEO of RBC
Member of the Board of Directors of RBC
Nikolai Molibog has been CEO of RBC since January 2014. From August 2013 until his appointment as CEO of the company, he was RBC's First Deputy CEO. From 2000 to 2003, Nikolai worked as a manager of a network of regional enterprises of CJSC Kommersant. Publishing House". From 2003 to 2004, he held the position of Deputy Managing Director of the socio-political newspaper Gazeta. Since 2004, Nikolai has worked for the Afisha company, where he has gone from the director of distribution and regional development to the CEO of the Afisha publishing house. From July 2010 to May 2013 he was the General Director of the united company Afisha-Rambler. In 2011, he was included in the rating of young Russian media managers by Odgers Berndtson in the category "Internet projects" with the highest rating (AA). In 2013, he entered the top three leaders of the CIS in the field of media business according to the Association of Managers of Russia. Nikolai graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Novosibirsk Technical University of Communications and Informatics.
First Deputy CEO of RBC
Ekaterina Kruglova has been Deputy CEO of RBC since December 2013. Ekaterina began her career in the media business as an analyst in the development directorate of NTV-Plus in 2002. In 2003, she moved to the Afisha company as an analyst in the business analysis department. In the period from 2005 to 2010, she held the positions of director of business analysis and deputy general director of the Afisha company. After the merger of Afisha and Rambler in 2010, she was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the merged company, where she worked until May 2013. Ekaterina graduated from the Faculty of Sociology of the Moscow Pedagogical State University, and also received an MBA from the Mirbis Moscow Higher School of Economics.
Deputy General Director of RBC
Joined the RBC team in May 2014, first served as Director for Economics and Finance of RU-CENTER Group, since December 2014 - CFO of RBC Group. In his current position, he is responsible for the operational efficiency of RBC's digital products.
In 2003, he joined RIA Novosti, where he held various positions in the financial unit. From September 2011 to March 2014, Igor was Deputy Editor-in-Chief of RIA Novosti for Development. In 2005, Igor successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis and was awarded the degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences. In 2011 he received a diploma from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants ACCA DipIFR.
Corporate Commercial Director of RBC
General Director of "Media Mir"
RBC Deputy CEO for Technology
Since September 2013, Alexander Kononenko has held the position of CEO of Media Mir LLC (part of the RBC Group and unites non-business Internet projects), and is also RBC's Deputy CEO for Technology. Alexander has over 10 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Previously, from May 2008 to March 2010, he held the position of Technical Director of Severen Telecom. In the period from April 2010 to May 2011 he was the technical director of the RBC Hosting Center, after which he moved to the position of technical director in the united company Afisha-Rambler. From May 2013 until joining RBC, he held the position of CEO for Technology at Afisha-Rambler-SUP. Alexander graduated from the Faculty of Informatics and Telecommunications of the Volga University. V.N. Tatishchev.
The ONEXIM group of Mikhail Prokhorov sold the media holding. The transaction is completed, the ESN group bought back 65% of the shares and debt obligations of RBC from the ONEXIM group, according to a press release from the ESN. acted as a consultant on the transaction.
“RBC is now one of the leading media holdings in Russia, and we see great potential for its development in various areas,” Grigory Berezkin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ESN, commented on the deal.
The RBC media holding includes a TV channel of the same name, a news site, a newspaper, a magazine, and an online publication “On high technologies» . RBC also has a business of Internet hosting and domain registration, conferences. According to LiveInternet, the holding's monthly audience is 26 million users.
The sale of RBC has been actively discussed since last spring. According to a Gazeta.Ru source in power circles, a photograph of Vladimir Putin to an article about Panamanian offshores published in the RBC newspaper caused an extremely negative reaction. After the publication in April last year, they conducted searches and seizure of documents at the head office of ONEXIM and its controlled companies in connection with "possible tax evasion." Then it became known that Mikhail Prokhorov was selling his assets. As a result, the team of media managers changed in the holding. Igor Trosnikov and Elizaveta Golikova, who were deputy editors-in-chief, were called to lead the publication, and before that they had worked for many years in.
In April of this year, it became known about the resumption of negotiations on the sale of RBC. The vc.ru website wrote that the sale of Prokhorov's holding was forced by "powerful pressure" from the deputy head, who allegedly considered RBC's publications about protest rallies and a note about changing the agenda of federal television channels a "personal insult".
On the eve of the deal, even the President had to make excuses. During a "straight line" on June 15, he stated that he had not discussed the sale of RBC with Mikhail Prokhorov.
“I believe that such media as RBC are needed, sometimes even, to be honest, I watch it myself. And the information package that I see on the screens, in principle, I consider it useful, I like it. But some kind of pressure - in any case, I don’t know anything about it, ”the president said during the direct line.
Grigory Berezkin, the owner of the ESN, said earlier that he intends to finance the potential acquisition of the ESN from his own funds and will represent only his own interests in the negotiations.
The parties have not yet disclosed the amount of the transaction. The press release said that this was agreed between the seller and the buyer. Considering that RBC is a public company with a capitalization of 2.7 billion rubles, 65.43% of the holding could be valued at about 1.8 billion rubles. However, the company has large debts. The total debt is about $230 million, of which RBC owes $200 million to ONEXIM. For a long time, the assessment of the debt did not allow the parties to agree on the amount of the transaction. In particular, the signing was delayed, as the parties bargained to the last on issues related to who would be financially responsible if Rosneft still manages to sue RBC for 3.2 billion rubles. for damage to business reputation. Although the court refused, the company filed a complaint with a higher authority.
At the same time, the expert does not exclude that under the new owner, the holding will change not only the media policy, but also the personnel of the publication.
However, in a letter to RBC employees, cited by the RNS agency, Nikolai Molibog expresses confidence that Grigory Berezkin shares the fundamental principles of RBC's work. “The question that worries many is what impact the change of ownership will have on RBC's media assets. In my opinion, the key value of our media brand is to work professionally and make high-quality information and analytical media. Thanks to this approach, we daily confirm RBC's status as the main supplier of quality content for the economically active part of the population. This is a big part of RBC's success as a business, and I am sure that the new shareholder shares this point of view,” Molibog wrote.