Qiwi closes sale of Russian assets to management

MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - Qiwi plc has closed the sale of its Russian assets as part of the restructuring of the group's business, the new CEO of the payment services company, Alexei Maschenkov said.

"I am honored to accept the position of CEO at Qiwi. [...] We have completed a very complicated divesture of Russian assets and now we look forward to the new opportunities," Maschenkov was quoted as saying in a company press release.

Maschenkov replaced Andrei Protopopov, who is leaving Qiwi plc. Maschenkov served as Qiwi plc's CFO from November 2021. Prior to joining the company, he served as deputy CEO of Russian Fishery Company and CFO at Russian Standard Group.

Qiwi announced on January 19 that it had agreed to sell its Russian assets, consolidated under JSC Qiwi, to Hong Kong-based Fusion Factor Fintech, which is wholly owned by former Qiwi plc CEO Andrei Protopopov. The price of the transaction will be 23.75 billion rubles.

The Russian business of JSC Qiwi includes Qiwi Bank, Qiwi Wallet, Qiwi Business, money transfer system Contact, Rowi, Realweb, Flocktory, Taxiaggregator, IntellectMoney and a number of other assets.

The group's international business in Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates and other countries will continue to develop under Qiwi plc. The restructuring of the business will enable Qiwi to maintain a listing on Nasdaq and the Moscow Exchange, the group said.

It was reported earlier that the group would use the proceeds from the sale to develop its international business and for a share buyback.

Qiwi will hold an extraordinary general meeting on the buyback on March 11; registration for the meeting closed on January 19. The group plans to buy back Class B common shares, including ADS, from Nasdaq and the Moscow Exchange; under Cyprus law they cannot exceed 10% of all issued shares, or 6,271,297 ADS. The maximum buyback price on the Moscow Exchange will be 581 rubles per share.

Qiwi has a free float of 71.3%. The company's largest shareholder is Sergei Solonin with 28.4% of shares and 71.3% of votes.