Controlling shareholder "M.video" Lagranolia Holdings - the structure of the group "Safmar" Mikhail Gutseriev's family was sold by 24.66% of the retailer on the Moscow stock exchange. Investor applications were collected in an accelerated mode: on July 26 in the evening the retailer announced a proposal to investors, and by 10 am on July 27 the sale was completed. The shareholder raised 17.95 billion rubles for the stake in the retailer. The shares were sold at a discount of 6% to the close on the previous day on the Moscow Stock Exchange.

The size of the sold package coincided with the number of shares that "Safmar" acquired as a result of the offer to minority shareholders. The offer was made at the end of April after the purchase by the Safmar Group of 57.7% of M.Video from the founder of the company Alexander Tynkovan and his partners. On closing the transaction, "M. Video" reported on July 26, shortly before the announcement of the SPO. The group paid for the package 17.7 billion rubles.

After the sale, the share of the Safmar group in M.video is 57.68%, the remaining shares will be free float.

The commission of the bank with such placements is 1-1.5% of the transaction amount, says a bank employee dealing with such transactions. But since "VTB Capital" was the only organizer, the commission could be smaller, he believes.

 At such a resale, "Safmar" could hardly make money, notes managing director of "TKB Investment Partners" Vladimir Tsuprov: the difference in prices is minimal, while the group has still spent on the organization of a new deal. This, as well as accelerated collection of investors' applications, may indicate that the placement could be technical, Tsuprov admits: "Safmar" could find in advance the most comfortable for a large buyer.

The shares of M.video, proposed by the structure of Safmar, were bought by local investors, funds from Great Britain and continental Europe, the representative of the press service of VTB Capital parries.

It's strange to sell the package at the same price, even at night, says Alexey Kupriyanov, managing director of BCS Global Markets. Usually when companies are merged from one industry, like Eldorado and M.video, the new owners first prepare a strategy for the development of the joint business, submit it to investors and only after that they conduct an SPO, list Kupriyanov, this allows them to make more money. Urgent resale, he continues, could be needed in the event that the company borrowed money from the minority shareholders to repurchase the stake from the minority shareholders and now they had to be returned urgently or to finance other segments of "Safmar".

On the basis of M.video and another electronics and retailer, Eldorado and Safmar, purchased earlier, I wanted to create a joint company Safmar Retail, but I considered a variant of competition between brands. While the association of companies did not take place, but in early July, "Safmar" published a presentation on the merger. So, as a result of the merger, companies could optimize the assortment, review the distribution of stores by region and close or transfer inefficient points, and cut spending on rent.

According to the results of 2016, two networks, according to "Safmar", occupy 26.5% of the Russian electronics market by revenue and 21.2% of the Internet electronics trade market. The combined revenue of M.video and Eldorado amounted to 296 billion rubles. In 2016, the number of stores - 816.

The representative of M.video re-addressed the questions to the shareholders, their representative did not answer Vedomosti's questions.