Etalon Group, one of Russia's largest development and construction corporations, completed the acquisition of a 51% stake in Leader-Invest, one of Moscow's largest residential developers in terms of land bank and number of projects currently available for sale, from Sistema, a large Russian conglomerate company, for RUB15.2bn. "While Etalon Group has traditionally focused on organic growth of its portfolio through the acquisition of individual land plots in its core geographies, we have always stated our readiness to acquire high-quality assets such as Leader-Invest through M&A transactions. We believe that this company meets all the criteria that we have previously announced for such transactions. All of its projects are located in Moscow, within the Moscow Ring Road, with the majority located in close proximity to Moscow's Third Ring Road, in areas with well-developed infrastructure and good transport accessibility and, most importantly, they do not overlap with Etalon Group's current portfolio of projects. At the same time, a significant part of Leader-Invest's portfolio consists of projects in the highly-profitable business- and premium-class segments, while the rest are in Etalon Group's traditional comfort-class segment. It is equally important that Leader-Invest, as a Sistema portfolio company, has established business processes that we believe to be in accordance with best corporate governance practices, following the principles of transparency, which is essential for Etalon Group as a public company," Gennadiy Shcherbina, Etalon Group CEO.