RTC-Solar aims to triple foreign sales in 2024

MOSCOW. Sept 15 (Interfax) - Rostelecom-Solar (RTC-Solar), an information security subsidiary of Russian national telecom provider Rostelecom , plans to triple revenue from sales of its solutions and services in other countries in 2024, RTC-Solar commercial director Nikolai Sivak told reporters in Moscow.

"We are now developing a strategy for the international development of the business. Revenue from abroad is small at this point, [but] we plan to triple it next year," Sivak said.

RTC-Solar CEO Igor Lyapunov said foreign sales now account for 2%-3% of the group's sales, which totalled 14.4 billion rubles in 2022. In 2023, RTC-Solar plans to double revenue from sales in the commercial segment. The group works under the Solar brand in the commercial segment and under the Rostelecom-Information Security brand in the government segment.

Sivak said working in other countries of the former Soviet Union does not differ much from working in Russia in terms of the technology and solutions used.

In countries outside the FSU, things are changing and interest is growing in Russian information security products and solutions, he said. Customers in these countries are looking at the experience of Russian companies, who were instantly left without protection due to sanctions and the departure of western vendors and were forced to handle growing cyber threats with solutions, products and services from Russian information security companies, Sivak said.

"Now many companies in friendly countries are reconfiguring their infrastructure and are looking at the products of vendors not only from the United States and Europe, but also from Russia and China. We are now focused on about 40 countries, these are countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia," Sivak said.

Other major Russian information security companies are also planning to expand their business on foreign markets. For example, PJSC Positive Group, the parent company of Positive Technologies Group, earlier announced plans to enter foreign markets. The company said it is interested in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia as well as Latin America, and is considering various options for organizing its foreign business, including through joint ventures with major local infrastructure players.

Positive Group estimated that it would take up to two years to enter the market of a given country, partly because of the need to adapt products to the local technological and regulatory specifics. However, a return in terms of revenue could be expected within eight to nine months of launching operations on a given foreign market, it said.

Russian companies that develop system software and applications are also interested in markets in these regions.