Business
TBC acquires leading Georgian e-commerce company
TBC acquires leading Georgian e-commerce company.
About this update from Tbc Bank Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 4104J TBC Bank Group PLC 19 August 2019 \n\nTBC Group acquires leading Georgian classified e-commerce company My Group\nTBC Bank Group PLC (\"TBC Group\") announces that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 65% stake in LLC My.ge, the leading classified e-commerce player in Georgia trading under the My.ge Group (\"My Group\") name.\n \nMy Group operates in four online marketplace verticals: automotive, automotive spare parts, consumer-to-consumer (\"C2C\") and housing. With combined 1.7 million unique monthly visitors, the online traffic of My Group is one of the largest in Georgia. It is the market leader in the automotive, spare parts and C2C verticals, with estimated market shares of approximately 80% in each, while in housing it is a top 2 player with an estimated market share of 30%-40%. \nMy Group has grown rapidly in recent years, increasing its number of unique visitors by around 20% during the last three years, while its revenue and profit before tax grew by 75% and 88% respectively during the same period. At the end of 2018, the gross assets of My Group stood at GEL 3.3 million, while total revenue and profit before tax for the full year 2018 amounted to GEL 4.0 million and GEL 2.6 million respectively, based on My Group's unaudited management accounts.\nMy Group was founded in 2002 by brothers Lasha Gigitelashvili and Kakha Gigitelashvili and after almost two decades of growth and diversification, it continues to be managed by these two key individuals. After completion of the transaction, the management team will stay for a minimum of one year and will continue to be actively involved in the development and execution of My Group's strategy.\n \nThe acquisition of My Group is an important step in TBC Group's strategy to develop a wide-ranging ecosystem that broadens our relationship with customers and creates strong synergies for the core banking business. The marketplaces of My Group offer obvious synergies for TBC Group's lending, payments and insurance businesses as well as for our recently launched e-businesses, Vendoo and Livo. The experience and know-how of My Group may also be applied in the future in other countries where TBC Group operates. \nThe shares acquired by TBC Group are sold by Lasha Gigitelashvili and Kakha Gigitelashvili, in a...