Ukraine’s largest e-commerce firms, Rozetka and EVO Group have merged after getting the thumbs up for the union from Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee on Nov. 27.
The e-commerce firms finalized anagreement that had been pending for almost four months as the companies waited for the go-ahead from the Antimonopoly Committee. Under the agreement, Rozetka has now bought a 56 percent stake in EVO Group from Naspers, the multinational internet and media group.
Rozetka has not disclosed the price of Naspers’s shares, but according to online tech journal AIN.ua, the value of the deal is around $12–15 million.
Both companies are hoping to complement each other, as Rozetka has a well-developed logistics chain stretching throughout Ukraine, while EVO has a host of smaller online stores and is serviced by a big tech department. The companies plan to create a separate enterprise, placing all of the online stores they own, including Prom, Deal, Bigl, Crafta, Kabanchik, Vchasno, Shafa under their joint management.
The newly created merged enterprise will be operated by a board of directors consisting of Rozetka’s co-owners — venture capital company Horizon Capital, and Rozetka CEO Vladyslav Chechotkin; and the three EVO Group co-founders — Mykola Palienko, Denys Horovy, and Taras Murashko. The future name of this enterprise has yet to be decided. Meanwhile, all the stores will continue their operations as usual and retain their names.
“By reaching this agreement we’re speeding up the development of electronic commerce in Ukraine,” EVO Group executive Palienko said in a company’s statement released on Nov. 27.
“In the end, we aim to become indispensable to every Ukrainian.”
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