Ex-head of Gallery Maria Komarova rushed into independent business
Last month, Russ Outdoor, another large operator of outdoor advertising in the Russian market, bought it.
But Ms. Komarova is not discouraged – she immediately opened her own business, registering an individual entrepreneur last week with the main activity – advising on commercial activities and real estate.
The message about the departure of Maria Komarova from the post of general director of Gallery Service LLC is dated July 14 in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
Recall that earlier it became known about the intention of RusOutdoor to buy out the Gallery agency, whose revenue for the last two years amounted to 4.4 billion rubles. In early July, the deal was approved by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, the owners of not the Gallery Service itself changed, but its founder. Russ Holding LLC (former Media-1 Outdoor) has been owned by Stinn LLC since June 30 of this year (70% by Grigory Sadoyan, 30% by Reserve-A LLC), a record of the former founders – LLC “New Media Holding” and LLC “Kismet Capital Group” Ivan Tavrin was removed from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
The former Gallery website, which now opens exclusively under the RussOutdoor name, notes that “combining the leadership competencies of the two operators will create and ensure high digitalization standards in the OOH industry, strengthen the image of outdoor advertising as one of the most effective marketing tools.”
The executive director of the Russ group, also named among its beneficiaries, Robert Mirzoyan, in turn, said that “the deal with the Gallery will allow us to continue the course towards the development of the outdoor advertising market.” He talked about creating a high-tech company, operating efficiency and a clear vision for development. And he assured that “contrary to the opinion of some colleagues, a sharp change in prices is not included in our plans.”
At the same time, Maria Komarova also commented on the merger as a general director. She unexpectedly stated that “Gallery was acquired when both the company and the UN market were in a crisis.” However, during the years under the management of Mr. Tavrin and her personally, the company was able to reboot with the help of investments.
“Our team has always believed in digitalization and scaling, so we believe that the merged company has the potential to give an additional impetus to the development of technologies and the industry as a whole,” Ms. Komarova noted, wishing the merged company success.
Her dismissal became known in mid-July. Just a few days earlier, she acted as CEO at the SPIEF session dedicated to the creative economy. Then she proposed to create a center for coordination of regional creative projects and outdoor advertising operators. Director General of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives Roman Karmanov supported the initiative, saying that the fund is ready to become such a center of coordination.
Maria Komarova herself opened an IP in Moscow on July 26. His main activity is advising on commercial activities and real estate. In additional – activities in the field of public relations, market research and public opinion research and the activities of advertising agencies.
This list suggests the participation of the newly-baked IP in the election campaigns. Let’s remind that in September elections of the mayor of Moscow, and next year – elections of the president of the Russian Federation will take place. By the way, RussOutdoor’s acquisition of such a large outdoor advertising operator as Gallery may be due to the same.
Recall that the Reserv-A fund, backed by Sergey Kotlyarenko, who is close to the head of VEB.RF, Igor Shuvalov, became a co-owner of 30% of Russ’s assets through a stake in Stinn LLC. He also owns the major Russian garbage operator Citimatic. By the way, the new director of Gallery Service, Igor Grachev, is also the head of Stinn LLC.
Help “BV”. Maria Komarova began her career in Saratov – at the Tonik-Radio radio station and the TVC-Saratov TV channel. In 2005, she left the media sphere for the civil service – she led the press service of the governor Pavel Ipatov, and served as vice mayor of Saratov. In 2007, Maria Komarova left for Moscow with her husband Ivan Lobanov, who was elected to the State Duma. In the capital, she headed the Kommersant publishing house, was an associate of the current speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin. In the spring of 2017, Komarova moved to Independent Media. Ivan Tavrin took over Gallery in 2018, having bought the company from Baring Vostok investment fund structures. Then the company was headed by Maria Komarova, who had previously collaborated with Tavrin in his company Choose Radio. As of December 31, 2019, Gallery, according to Tavrin, was estimated at 296.4 million rubles. The revenue of Gallery Service in 2022 decreased by 3%, amounting to 4.4 billion rubles. Net profit almost tripled to 1.7 billion rubles.
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