Russia's Mail.Ru sells all its Facebook stock

By Reuters | Updated: 5 September 2013 13:50 IST

Russian internet group Mail.Ru , part owned by the country's richest man Alisher Usmanov, has sold the remainder of its shares in social network group Facebook Inc for $525 million, it said on Thursday.

Mail.ru originally bought into Facebook in 2009, investing $200 million for a small stake that valued Facebook at $10 billion. At the time of Facebook's IPO last year, it had a stake worth around $700 million.

Mail.Ru sold some of its Facebook shares during the IPO. It said on Thursday it sold its remaining 14.2 million Facebook shares in the period of July-August 2013.

Mail.Ru also reported a 28 percent rise in first-half net profit to 5.1 billion roubles and edged up its revenue growth forecast for 2013 on the back of fast growth in advertising and games.

The company said it expected its revenue to rise by 27-29 percent.

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