Astra Group exercises option to acquire 80% of cloud services provider

MOSCOW. May 14 (Interfax) - PJSC Astra Group, the parent of a group of Russian companies that develop infrastructure software, including the Astra Linux operating system, has acquired 80% of Caravan VDC, data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) showed.

The parties to the transaction have not disclosed its price.

The USRLE data also indicated that, with the acquisition of the 80% stake in Caravan VDC, Astra Group also became the principal beneficiary of Rusonyx LLC, which owns two other companies - National Telecommunications and Zenon NSP.

Astra Group entered into several option agreements in early April to acquire 80% stakes in Caravan VDC and Rusonyx. It was reported that, depending on the type of option, the price of the transaction could be from 313.1 million rubles to 438.8 million rubles.

Astra Group also secured the right to buy the remaining 20% of Rusonyx and Caravan VDC at a price that would be determined by the market value of PJSC Astra Group's own shares.

Caravan VDC acquired 100% of Rusonyx in mid-April. Astra Group told Interfax that before the completion of the deal the companies in this group were in the process of consolidation.

Rusonyx was previously owned solely by Konstantin Anisimov, who also served as the company's director. The company, which started out as a hosting provider, provides cloud infrastructure services for e-commerce and media projects. Rusonyx closed 2022 with a net profit of 46 million rubles on revenue of 206 million rubles.

Anisimov was also the CEO and principal owner of Caravan VDC, with a stake of 63.69%. He now owns only 20% of the company.

Caravan VDC, which provides cloud information technology services, closed 2022 with a net profit of 22 million rubles on revenue of 37 million rubles.