Russ Outdoor closes acquisition of digital advertising operator Gallery

MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - The Russ Outdoor Group has closed a deal to acquire rival Gallery, the leader on the Russian digital outdoor advertising market, data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) showed.

The transaction was finalized on June 30, with Stinn LLC, which is owns 91.9% of Russ Outdoor LLC, consolidating 100% of Media-1 Outdoor LLC, the owner of Gallery Service LLC.

Earlier on Friday, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) approved the deal with restrictions on price policy. Russ Outdoor pledged not to raise prices for advertising services until the end of the year.

Gallery Service LLC was as of 2021 wholly owned by Media-1 Outdoor LLC, the ultimate beneficiary of which was businessman Ivan Tavrin, data from the SPARK-Interfax system showed.

Gallery Service increased its net profit to 1.7 billion rubles in 2022 from 840 million rubles in 2021, although revenue slipped to 4.35 billion rubles from 4.4 billion rubles. The company said it owns about 15,000 advertising surfaces in 40 Russian cities.

The Russ Outdoor Group, according to its website, is the largest outdoor advertising operator in Russia, with billboards in 56 cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg and cities in Moscow Region. The group places ads on Moscow's subway and above-ground public transport, Russian Railways (RZD) trains and train stations and at airports, including St. Petersburg's Pulkovo, Moscow's Vnukovo, Sochi, Vladivostok and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The company's billboards are estimated to reach more than 49 million people per month.

Russ Outdoor LLC's principal owner as of June 2023 was businessman Grigory Sadoyan's Stinn LLC, according to the USRLE. Russ Outdoor closed 2022 with a net profit of 820 million rubles on revenue of 14 billion rubles, compared to 1.3 billion rubles and 10.8 billion rubles, respectively, in 2021.

Russ Outdoor and Gallery announced a strategic partnership at the end of 2021.