YPI Yellow Pages Limited
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Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 15 August 2007: Czura Thornton, the private investment firm founded by Tony Czura and Nick Thornton in 2003, today announced the sale of YPI Yellow Pages Limited («YPI») to Kontakt East Holdings AB (OMX:KEH).
The transaction creates Russia’s largest directory (print and online search) business with market leading positions in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the regions, employing more than 1,000 people. KEH also brings a strong presence in E-commerce launching the Avito.ru (now one of Russia’s largest) auction site in October 2007. The merged directory operations will trade under the Yellow Pages brand and will utilize the familiar ‘walking fingers’ logo. YPI’s Chief Executive Officer, Rick Macy, and Chief Financial Officer, Kirill Starodubov become the CEO and CFO for KEH’s directory division. The transaction consideration was paid as a mixture of cash and equity. Czura Thornton retains a significant minority stake in KEH and retains certain rights to further equity warrants in the Group. On taking control of YPI in 2005 Czura Thornton embarked on a comprehensive program of business and operating improvement, acquired the dominant yellow pages provider in Perm (population 1 million), and introduced a series of other growth initiatives that together resulted in a substantial increase in group revenue and operating profit. Tony Czura, Chairman of Czura Thornton said “We are very pleased with this merger as it creates a clear leader in the Russian marketplace; one which can deliver not only excellent geographical coverage but also the delivery of consistent, accurate and important information to the business community. We look forward to our continued involvement and an exciting future with the merged Yellow Pages group.”
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