OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2012. RBC OJSC (MICEX-RTS: RBCM) announces having successfully closed a deal to acquire domain name registrar and hosting provider RU-CENTER (Regional Network Information Center CJSC). RBC has purchased a 100% equity stake in the company, while the value of the deal amounted to approximately RUB 920m. RU-CENTER has become the sixth business unit of Hosting Community, which is a part of RBC holding. As a result, Hosting Community has become the undisputed leader in the Russian hosting and domain name registration segments.

RBC has managed the day-to-day operations of RU-CENTER since the announcement of its intention to acquire the company in March 2011. The financial results of RU-CENTER have been included in RBC's consolidated financial results as of the second quarter of 2012. The task of efficient incorporation of RU-CENTER was assigned to Hosting Community Managing Partner Alexander Panov, who since 2011 has concurrently occupied the position of CEO of Regional Network Information Center CJSC. Meanwhile, Yaroslav Karetsky, who has also been Managing Partner at Hosting Community, by mutual consent, left the company in order to concentrate his efforts on the development of a different business.

The management expects to boost the profitability of Hosting Community over the next 18-24 months due to a substantial synergy effect between the assets. Specifically, the plans include forming single marketing, legal, PR and HR services and optimizing the number of production offices.

"We are delighted to announce that RU-CENTER has become a part of Hosting Community. We have been working to achieve this for more than a year. By pooling our efforts, we expect to achieve a new quality level of our services and deliver strong financial results. We see great prospects in the area of domain name registration, hosting and related services. This is a rapidly growing Internet segment with high profit margins. I am confident that we as the market leader can unlock vast opportunities for dynamic expansion," RBC CEO Sergey Lavrukhin said.

"Consolidation of Russia's largest hosting and domain assets under common management will make it possible to achieve an unparalleled synergy effect and offer a full range of Internet presence services. The merger has resulted in a structure comparable to global leaders in terms of quality and the range of services provided and in some aspects even superior to them," Hosting Community Managing Partner Alexander Panov noted.