Gazprom-Media Holdings decides to seize the advertising market

Gazprom-Media Holdings and Maxim Telecom appear to be aiming to take over the entire internet advertising market. The companies reached an agreement on this at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. To this end, a joint venture will be created, in which Gazprom-Media will hold 51% and Maxim will hold 49%.

It is worth noting that Maxim Telecom is linked to the head of the Moscow Department of Transport, Maxim Liskov. The company is the largest Wi-Fi operator on public transport in Russia. The nominal owner of the firm, Estonian citizen Urmo Vallner, holds shares in a number of offshore companies.

Specifically, his offshore company Malver Holdings owns 33.4% of the offshore company Geromell Trade, which in turn owns 100% of Maxim.

Notably, the Estonian bought Malver Holdings from Alexey Krivoruchko – the general director and shareholder of the Kalashnikov defence conglomerate.

He also received a stake in Geromell Trade from Latvian citizen Drūvis Mūrmānis, who served on the board of directors of the Latvian company L-Ekspresis. Its blocking stake (30% of shares) was held by Maxim Liskov, who is included in the Forbes magazine's Top 200 richest people in Russia. His fortune is estimated at over 600 million dollars.