According to Artem Tuzov, the amount of the deal to purchase 51% of Fazum could be 3.5 billion rubles.

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Experts approve

Artem Tuzov, Director of the Corporate Finance Department at IVA Partners, recalled that Rostelecom invests funds from profits.

Rostelecom recently disclosed its IFRS financial statements for the first half of 2023, where it pleased shareholders with a free cash flow of RUB 73 billion. Free cash flow can israel whatsapp resource be used to reduce the debt burden, M&A transactions (Mergers & Acquisitions). As we can see, Rostelecom has decided to focus on M&A for now," said Artem Tuzov.

According to him, organic growth for a federal-scale company like Rostelecom is an extremely difficult task, which is why Rostelecom has long been entering related niches through M&A deals. "This is how leadership positions were obtained in both mobile communications and wired Internet services. Rostelecom not only knows how to effectively buy businesses, but also successfully builds an ecosystem of products. In the industry in which Fazum operates, there are more orders than specialists. By 2025, it is necessary to switch to domestic software. Rostelecom, using its own finances and specialists, will be able to significantly strengthen Fazum's presence on the market," believes the representative of IVA Partners Investment Company.


"The price of the deal, taking into account the growth rate, could be up to 3.5 billion rubles, since the value of the entire company is about 7 billion rubles. If the growth rate is maintained, in two or three years the company will be able to earn 1.5 billion rubles of net profit per year," noted Artem Tuzov.

Other experts interviewed by ComNews called this assessment adequate to reality. FG Finam analyst Leonid Delitsyn named a more modest figure. "The cost of acquiring 51% of Fazum can be estimated at 1.4 billion rubles. The financial technology market is very large and continues to grow, new areas are constantly emerging. It is unlikely that Rostelecom's acquisition of Fazum will subsequently lead to the loss of the market by other players. Rostelecom's strategy is to dominate the B2G market, so it can be expected that financial technologies are primarily of interest to the company when citizens and the company pay for state services or receive state funds," Leonid Delitsyn noted.

According to him, the Russian financial technology market is estimated at 140 billion rubles, but for now the acquisition of Fazum will not bring Rostelecom a large share of the fintech market. "The market will remain young and fragmented. It is difficult to estimate the share of cloud fintech itself, although in the future this entire market will become cloudy in some way," the Finam analyst predicts.

Kirill Vladimirov, CEO of Only, also believes that the deal is closer to 1.5-2 billion rubles. Rostelecom, like any large Russian business, seeks to participate in fintech and other advanced industries. Fazum's revenue for 2022 is recorded at more than 680 million rubles. Thus, we can talk about a deal of 1.5-2 billion rubles. Since the entire fintech market in 2022 was about 140 billion rubles, Fazum's share in this amount is about 0.5%. In general, any deals to purchase companies are primarily associated with entering new markets, synergy with new products and strengthening the competitive position, ”Kirill Vladimirov recalled.

Leading analyst of Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin noted that the main resource that Rostelecom acquired was the time to enter the market.

"Rostelecom invests in various companies. Fintech is an interesting and promising area, so the assets that are available are an opportunity to buy expertise, time to enter the market, which is always in short supply. The deal looks interesting. "Rostelecom", despite the fact that everyone treats it as a state-owned company and a "monster" in telecom, is perceived as a company that knows how to count money, and in this aspect the deal looks very, very interesting," concluded Eldar Murtazin.