Selectel bus cloud provider Servers.ru for 3.1 bln rubles

MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Selectel, a Russian provider of IT infrastructure services, has acquired Unified Network LLC, a provider of cloud services that operates under the brands servers.ru, exepto.ru and fozzy.ru, Selectel said.

The deal was worth no more than 3.1 billion rubles. Former REG.RU CEO Roman Murazanov advised on the deal.

Selectel said the acquisition will enable it to accelerate the growth of its business on the cloud infrastructure services market.

United Network provides IaaS (infrastructure as a service), including leasing of dedicated servers, private and public clouds and colocation services at partner data centers in Moscow. Its customer base includes more than 400 medium and large companies. United Network is expected to close 2024 with EBITDA of 900 million rubles on revenue of 1.6 billion rubles.

United Network ranks third among dedicated server leasing providers in Russia, with 10% of the market in 2023, iKS-Consulting estimated.

The company will continue to support the products and services its customers are accustomed to as usual following the transaction, Selectel said.

"We see significant potential for growth of the cloud infrastructure services market and, specifically the dedicated server segment as one of our key products. The deal will further accelerate Selectel's current rapid organic growth," Selectel CEO Oleg Lyubimov said in the press release.

Unified Network was founded in November 2007 and has charter capital of 22.6 billion rubles. The company closed 2023 with net profit up 59.4% to 567 million rubles on revenue up 14.9% to 1.17 billion rubles. The company provides a full range of services for computing, data storage and networking, with an emphasis on dedicated infrastructure solutions.

Selectel provides cloud services based on its own data centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, as well as a partner data center in Novosibirsk. The company was founded in 2008 by VKontakte co-founders Lev Leviev and Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, and its largest shareholder is their company Servertech Holding Ltd. (formerly LVL1 Management Ltd.) with a stake of 68.4%. Gevork Vermishyan's Tier 5 fund holds 24% and senior executives own 3.6%.