Guru appeared in Sistema – WWN No. 16 (7461) dated 01/30/2023

AFK Sistema, which owns MTS, has created Guru Electronics, which will distribute consumer electronics and small household appliances. The company has already filed declarations for the import of Apple phones and smart watches, Dyson and Samsung equipment into the EAEU. So far, the supply of parallel imports has primarily been carried out by specialized distributors and small resellers: the emergence of another major market participant, experts believe, will increase competition in the segment, which will positively affect prices.

“Kommersant” found in the register of declarations of conformity of the EAEU documents dated January 27 for the supply of Apple, Samsung and Dyson equipment. The applicant indicated “Guru Electronics”, owned by the structure of AFK “Sistema” (owns MTS and Ozon) “Sistema Telecom Assets”. A company with an authorized capital of 2 million rubles. registered December 22. AFK confirmed to Kommersant that they created Guru Electronics for wholesale purchases of electronics and small household appliances for sale to retail chains and stores.

The company declared the import of eight batches of devices: iPhone, iPad and AirPods with cables and power supplies, Apple and Samsung smart watches, Dyson hair dryers and stylers — 1.55 million units each. The same goods and in similar volumes have been declared by the MTS retail network (RTK JSC) since September 2022. Dmitry Magyanov, former commercial director of MTS retail, is listed as the CEO of Guru Electronics in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

In 2022, most foreign manufacturers stopped supplying goods to Russia due to hostilities in Ukraine. After the legalization of parallel imports (import of equipment without the permission of the copyright holder), not only large distributors began to supply equipment (including Marvel Distribution, Merlion, diHouse, etc.), but also small resellers (see “Kommersant” dated January 26) . At the same time, distributors are expanding business segments that are not directly related to the supply of goods to stores, in particular, equipment repair services (see Kommersant dated December 2, 2022) and the production of laptops for the consumer market (see Kommersant dated October 31, 2022). ).

A Kommersant source close to Sistema said that Guru Electronics was created “so that competitors of AFK’s specialized structures, such as MTS, could freely cooperate with it.” But a Kommersant source in a large distributor believes that we are talking about strengthening the direction of parallel imports for domestic needs and it is unlikely that the volumes indicated in the declarations will be released to the market: “MTS needs them for their own retail due to demand and periodic shortages of goods. This is especially true for accessories. MTS did not answer “Kommersant”. The domestic distributor Revo Charge, which also works with parallel imports, is also, for example, MegaFon, its CEO Khachatur Pombukhchan said in an interview with Kommersant in July 2022.

The creation of a company separate from MTS, which would import the equipment of manufacturers who left Russia, can reduce the risks for the operator, Fintech Lab analyst Sergey Vilyanov believes: “It is a typical practice to create a large number of legal entities so that in case of possible risks they do not affect the core business.” He noted that payment from the MTS mobile account is still one of the few ways to make a purchase in Apple services, which gives the company a competitive advantage.

The market for high-margin brands in Russia has declined in 2022, but there is no shortage, says Alexey Pogudalov, commercial director of Holodilnik.ru: “If there is one more distributor, there will be more competition, and, most likely, this will have a positive effect on the price.” TelecomDaily CEO Denis Kuskov clarifies that the lack of direct deliveries affected at least the range of Apple and Samsung products available in Russia: “Companies import the most popular models, and, if you look at the amount of memory and power, not all options are on the market.” At the same time, in general, in January-November 2022, sales of smartphones in Russia, according to MTS, fell year-on-year by 19% in units and by 22% in money terms. In just 11 months, about 21 million devices were sold for 477 billion rubles.

Yuri Litvinenko, Nikita Korolev