Following a June announcement that MIH Allegro B.V. was in negotiations to acquire internet portal Bankier.pl from MCI Management, the deal was completed on August 6, 2009. Allegro has followed through on its plans and has purchased 6,013,052 shares of Bankier.pl, equaling a controlling stake of just over 83%. The shares were acquired via a call for subscription and added to Allegro’s securities account on August 5th. The majority share now makes Bankier.pl a subsidiary company of MIH Allegro.
Bankier.pl (www.bankier.pl)
Bankier.pl is a web portal specializing in financial information including capital markets, financial products, investing, and personal funds. In addition, the portal provides its users stock exchange information such as current quotes, analysis, calculators, forecasts, and side-by-side comparisons.
First established in 2000, the company has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2006. In 2007 the portal launched a mobile version with its own dedicated web address. Based in Warsaw, Bankier.pl has 51 employees as of 2007, with revenues of $5.3 million.
MIH Group
MIH Group is a multinational media company active in the electronic media segment, including pay-TV, internet, instant messaging and the distribution of the associated technologies. The MIH Group is part of the South African Naspers Group (JSE: NPN).
The European internet branch of the MIH Group, MIH Internet Europe, includes leading internet brands and online auction platforms such as allegro.pl (market leader in Poland) and ricardo.ch (market leader in Switzerland), Aukro (Bulgaria, Czech Republic) and QXL (Denmark, Norway), as well as leading online portals Gadu-Gadu (Poland) and mail.ru (Russia).
14/08/2009
Central & Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, Exit, Financial Services, Private Equity News, South Africa