Moscow, Russian Federation- 05 April 2018: Public Joint Stock Company “MegaFon” (LSE: MFON), a pan-Russian provider of digital opportunities (“MegaFon” or the “Company”), announces its intention to enter the Moscow online taxi market. MegaLabs, the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary and the developer of MegaFon’s value added and digital services, is acquiring a minority stake in “CITY-MOBIL” LLC, a Moscow-based ride-hailing company (“City-Mobil”) and participating in the investment round.

City-Mobil, a taxi aggregator, is closing an investment round in the total amount of US$ 35 million. Along with other investors, including Mail.Ru Group Limited, MegaFon will participate in this round through the purchase of shares from existing shareholders, as well as acquisition of new shares. MegaFon’s total investment in this project will amount to approximately US$ 14 million with the resulting ownership of up to 31%. MegaFon will not consolidate this stake.

CityMobil started as an off-line conventional Moscow taxi operator. Recently the company re-shaped its business model and moved online with over 65% of rides now being booked through a proprietary app.

Gevork Vermishyan, the Executive Director of MegaFon, commented:

“We believe that this investment is a promising opportunity both financially and strategically. The ride-hailing market is developing very rapidly, and is ripe for a new wave of disruption by fast moving players with interesting ideas in technology and marketing. As a further step in the implementation of the Company’s digital strategy, we aim to expand the ecosystem of our digital services and products, and to create opportunities for our subscribers to explore new customer experiences. We believe that our subscribers will enjoy the convenience of using convenience of using this popular service, and that this new addition to our product offering will improve loyalty and increase the LTV of our subscribers. And at the same time this investment may provide additional ways to monetise our data traffic”.

Aram Arakelyan, founder and CEO of City-Mobil:

“We are excited with the entry of such investors and very motivated by this trust. Vast expertise in online marketing, client service, operations and many other areas that our new investors may bring will give us a lot of support in our quest for building a new big national player”.