OREANDA-NEWS. Mail.Ru Group Limited (LSE: MAIL, hereinafter referred as "the Company" or "the Group"), today announces the sale of 100% of HeadHunter shares to an investor consortium led by Elbrus Capital for RUR 9.85 billion.

The deal is expected to close in Q1 2015 and is subject to third-party approval.

Mail.Ru Group has been the owner of HeadHunter, the leader in the online recruitment segment in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Azerbaijan, for 6 years. During that time HeadHunter has established its leading position in the Russian market, as its monthly audience has grown from 4 to 14 mln unique users, its resume database has increased from 3 to 14.5 mln, and its vacancy database has grown from 70 to 360 thousand. During that period HeadHunter has also entered the Belarus (2010) and Azerbaijan (2012) markets and launched a Russian Employer Rating, Wage Database, Clickme advertising service and online Vacancy Fair.

In 2013 HeadHunter's revenue and EBITDA was RUR 2,756 million and RUR 1,357 million respectively. During the first 9 months of 2014 HeadHunter's revenue and EBITDA was RUR 2,325 million and 1,183 million respectively.

Dmitry Grishin, Co-Founder and CEO of Mail.Ru Group: "We are grateful to the HeadHunter team for the great job they've been doing these 6 years. Thanks to their efforts during that time the product has made a serious leap in quality, its popularity growing manifold. We wish much success to the team."

Dmitri Krukov, Managing Partner at Elbrus Capital: "HeadHunter is the absolute leader in the online recruitment market, the company boasts a great management team that has impressive track record of growth and success. We believe that the online HR solutions market in Russia and other countries presents great opportunities. Our experience and our investors' capital will provide new opportunities for HeadHunter to implement its strategy of further technology development (including mobile technologies), launching new products and services, and entering new markets."

Mikhail Zhukov, Managing Director at HeadHunter: "We are grateful to Mail.Ru Group management team for supporting our development and for our collaboration during all these years. With our new shareholders HeadHunter is in for the new stage of development. I am certain that this step will be very positive for our clients who develop their businesses and our users who build their careers with the help of HeadHunter."