Alisher Usmanov |
Mail.ru Group Ltd., a member of the Naspers Group, announced yesterday that it has sold its remaining 14.2 million Facebook shares, about a 0.6 percent stake.
The Russian Internet company sold its stake for more than $525 million, taking advantage of a 57 percent jump in Facebook’s price this year.
Mail.Ru, part-owned by Russia’s richest man Alisher Usmanov, bought a small stake in Facebook for $200 million in 2009.
In an interview with Reuters, Renaissance Capital analyst David Ferguson said that”This is consistent with everything they’ve said since their IPO, which is these were non-core investments and they would dispose of them at an appropriate time and return cash to shareholders.”
“It is an ongoing recognition that their focus is a core Russia social, communication and gaming business, and that’s where they will continue to allocate their time.”
Usmanov earned about $1.4 billion by selling shares in Facebook’s IPO last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. He also sold $532 million shares of Mail.ru in February to recoup investments in the Russian company.
Ferguson said he expected Mail.Ru to use the cash to pay a special dividend which could be announced towards the end of the year. He estimates the company has around $780 million of cash.
Using the cash to pay dividends would be consistent with Mail.Ru’s past moves. In February, it announced a special dividend of $4.30 per share, worth $899 million, following the sale of shares in Groupon, Zynga and Facebook.