Telco MegaFon Sells AliExpress Russia Stake to USM International

One of Russia’s largest mobile carriers, MegaFon, has sold its 24.3 percent stake in AliExpress Russia to its own sole shareholder, USM International.

AliExpress Russia was created as a joint venture between Alibaba Group, Russian e-commerce player Mail.ru Group, MegaFon and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) in 2019.

In April, financial disclosures from the AliExpress Russia joint venture showed total gross merchandise volume (GMV) of 229 billion roubles ($3.1 billion) for fiscal year ending March 31, versus 210 billion roubles ($2.85 billion) for the previous year. According to data from Mediascope, AliExpress Russia has the largest daily user base across mobile devices and desktop computers of any local e-commerce platform.

However, this hasn’t made the company profitable: AliExpress Russia’s net losses widened in the first half of 2021 to almost a billion roubles (around $13 million) against 533 million roubles ($7.2 million) for the same period in 2020.

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