3 Apr 2007 16:43

Interfax Group agrees purchase of 90% of shares of Finmarket Information Agency

The Interfax International Information Services Group has agreed to purchase 90% of the shares of the Finmarket information agency, one of the leading Russian suppliers of financial and economic information, and plans to complete the deal by the end of the second quarter of 2007.

“Finmarket is a well known brand on the Russian market. The agency, created 13 years ago, offers a full range of information services oriented towards professional securities market players, and to all who follow financial markets. We plan to take advantage of Finmarket’s strong position in the financial segment of the Russian Internet,” said Interfax’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mikhail Komissar. “Interfax, which is the leading provider of financial-economic and political information to many thousands of corporate subscribers, has not been developing any business in the open Internet. The acquisition of Finmarket will take us into this market,” he said.


Finmarket General Director Denis Yevstigneev said: “The new content and services that Finmarket will be able to take advantage of, will attract thousands of new users, interested in financial-economic information over Internet”.


Finmarket’s free-access site – http://www.finmarket.ru/ will become the main Internet gateway for Interfax Group’s financial and economic services.


The http://www.finmarket.ru/site, which was named the best financial Internet resource of the year as part of the “Financial Elite of Russia 2006” competition, will be able to use Interfax news and analytics.


There are plans to develop information products for the financial services consumers within frames of yet another popular Finmarket project, “Private Money”. They will include analytics, ratings, rankings and forecasts from the Interfax Center for Economic Analysis (Interfax CEA) with an addition of resources of the Interfax-Experian Credit Bureau, which works, among others, with private borrowers.


The “Private Money” project, which provides information on how to keep and increase your own money, how to manage real estate, how to choose insurance firms, how to get credit etc., will be developed from the funds of the Interfax Group’s companies that operate in all the seven Russian federal districts.


The Finmarket’s RusBonds project has the task of becoming the main resource on the bonds market in the Russian Internet, in part thanks to the unique SPARK database, developed by Interfax, and to its issuers disclosure system.


Interfax is also interested in another Finmarket project – Finmarket RealTime, one of the leading financial market terminals. Interfax, which also has a leading position in this segment with its Efir terminal, hopes that by uniting the capacities of the two agencies it will achieve the top position in the provision of the professional stock market information in Russia.


*** Interfax International Information Services Group (www.interfax.com and http://www.interfax.ru/ provides news and other information products that are essential for decision makers in politics and business. The group, which was founded in 1989, incorporates a network of national, regional and sector-related news agencies active in Russia, other CIS member-nations, China and Central Europe. The companies and divisions that are members of Interfax Group provide news, analytical services, market data, fundamental information, and program solutions.


The Interfax Financial and Business News Services incorporate about ten companies, including the largest news agencies in their sectors in Russia: Interfax FNA (financial and commodities markets); Interfax PNA (energy markets) and Interfax GNA (natural gas market). They also include the Center for Economic Analysis, well known as one of the largest independent analytical centers, and project SPARK, the largest database of corporate information in Russia.


*** Finmarket Information Agency (www.finmarket.ru) was set up in 1994 and specializes in presentation of financial-economic and business information for professionals in the securities market such as banks and financial specialists, brokers, insurance firms, and a wide spectrum of specialists interested in events on the Russian financial markets.


The agency’s site, www.finmarket.ru, is one of a most visited news websites on financial-economic issues. Having started working practically together with the appearance of the Russian financial market, Finkarmet is currently considered one of the most authoritative sources of financial-economic and business information in Russia.