Putin allows VK Russian legal entity to buy out 100% of Money.Mail.Ru from affiliated structure

MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has permitted VK Company LLC, the core Russian legal entity of VK, to acquire 100% of RNKO Money.Mail.Ru, and the president's corresponding instruction has been posted on the federal portal of regulatory legal acts.

Cyprus-based P.J.V. Digital Forces LTD, part of the VK Company LLC international parent holding, currently owns the asset. A VK representative confirmed to Interfax that the company intends to alter RNKO Money.Mail.Ru to the Russian face of the group.

Money.Mail.Ru was supposed to become part of the payment joint venture of VK, PJSC MegaFon , USM, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), jointly with China's Ant Group, which is a subsidiary of the Alibaba holding. The partners announced the creation of the JV at the end of 2019, and they signed the respective binding documents in February 2021. As part of this, VK was supposed to contribute RNKO Money.Mail.Ru and the VK Pay payment service to the JV, and receive 40% of the company being created in return.

Formation of the payment JV was envisaged to have been completed in the third quarter of 2021 along with the financial JV, in which the same partners were to participate.

Nevertheless, VK in October of the same year questioned the creation of the JV in its original configuration. At the same time, the company ceased to contribute its assets to the projects intended for sale, specifically, RNKO Money.Mail.Ru LLC and VK Pay, as well as a stake in InPlat.