DLA Piper has advised Guard Capital, a venture capital fund specializing in telecom and Internet projects, on the sale of a 79.6% stake in DocDoc.ru, an e-medicine company in Russia, to Sberbank. Sberbank was represented by CMS on the deal, which sees the remaining stake belong to the founder of DocDoc.ru and its key management.
According to DLA Piper, "with a market share of approximately 60%, DocDoc.ru is Russia's leading online medical appointment service accessible through a website and mobile application. With more than 30,000 doctors in 2,000 clinics, it allows patients to choose a doctor on the basis of their internal ranking, feedback from other patients, location of the hospital, price and other criteria."
DLA Piper also describes Guard Capital, which was founded in 2009 by a group of private Russian investors, as investing in "fast-growing profitable companies undergoing an expansion phase in their business development and participates in promising start-up projects in a wide range of industries." According to the firm, "the fund specializes in investments in telecom and Internet projects with investment volumes of USD 2-5 million and with payback periods within five years."
DLA Piper Corporate Partner Leo Batalov, who led the firm's team on the deal, commented that: "We are delighted to help Guard Capital, our long-established client, with this exciting expansion project for one of their core start-ups. This deal has already become an important step in building Russia-wide digital ecosystems and we are proud to be part of this success story."
Batalov led the firm's team on the deal, which also included Senior Corporate Associate Andrei Sheetkin and Corporate Associate Tatiana Askarova.
CMS's team was led by Partner Vladimir Zenin and included Counsel Gregor Kennedy and Associates Vladimir Muzhchinin and Vladislav Eltovskiy.
