REG-TCS Group Holding PLC TCS Group Holding PLC: Tinkoff becomes a shareholder of Beskontakt LLC - the developer of Koshelek, a leading mobile app offering loyalty card storage and contactless smartphone payments

TCS HoldingAnnouncement

29/04/2021 13:30

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   TCS Group Holding PLC (TCS)
   TCS Group Holding PLC: Tinkoff becomes a shareholder of Beskontakt LLC -
   the developer of Koshelek, a leading mobile app offering loyalty card
   storage and contactless smartphone payments

   29-Apr-2021 / 15:25 MSK
   Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement, transmitted by EQS Group.
   The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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   Tinkoff becomes a shareholder of Beskontakt LLC - the developer of
   Koshelek, a leading mobile app offering loyalty card storage and
   contactless smartphone payments

   Moscow, Russia - 29 April 2021

   Tinkoff Group, the leading online provider of financial and lifestyle
   services, has announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Beskontakt
   LLC, the developer of Koshelek digital wallet, an aggregator of banking
   cards and retail loyalty programs. The Koshelek app is a leader in its
   field, reporting the highest number of users of any app in Russia and the
   CIS. The deal was closed on 29 April 2021 and the transaction terms are to
   remain confidential.

   The Koshelek app is a digital wallet and Russia's only mobile app for
   aggregating bank cards, loyalty and discount cards, and coupons. At
   present, it has digitized over 300 million cards and has a user base that
   exceeds 20 million.

   Koshelek helps users to rid themselves of plastic and transition entirely
   to digital cards. To receive a discount at checkout, the user simply needs
   to show their discount card on their smartphone screen, and pay with a
   tokenised debit or credit card by holding the smartphone close to the
   contactless payment terminal. The application offers retailers access to a
   new audience, alongside savings on loyalty and discount cards and better
   customer communication. Koshelek partners with 19 of the 30 largest
   loyalty programs in Russia.

   The Koshelek team, including its co-founders Kirill Gorynya and Filipp
   Shubin, will remain autonomous and continue to develop the company's
   business. The company's partnership with Tinkoff will further strengthen
   the app's position as a leading provider of loyalty programs for Russia's
   largest retailers. The company's current development strategy will remain
   intact, and the platform will continue to be open and independent in order
   to encourage new customers to engage with banks that participate in the
   app's Koshelek Pay service.

   As part of its partnership with Tinkoff, Koshelek will begin integrating
   user-friendly financial instruments into its service offering, including:
   "buy-now-pay-later" payment plans, varied cashback options, Tinkoff Target
   programs and more. The app's users will benefit from attractive offers and
   a seamless customer experience within a single mobile app, while its new
   features will expand opportunities for retailers to develop co-branded
   programs and boost sales.

   Oliver Hughes, Tinkoff Group CEO:

   "We are happy to welcome Koshelek into the Tinkoff family. Koshelek has a
   spirit and DNA that is very close to our own, and this new partnership
   aligns perfectly with our goal to provide Russians with the best service
   in the market. Our teams will cooperate closely with one another for
   mutual gain; Tinkoff will share the groundwork it has laid in business
   process optimization as well as its expertise in implementing cutting-edge
   IT solutions to ensure Koshelek continues to develop rapidly. We already
   plan to integrate Tinkoff's financial service offerings into the Koshelek
   app, in order to accelerate its development and enable Koshelek to offer
   its customers great deals and cashback. The Tinkoff and Koshelek teams
   will present their first joint project at SPIEF 2021. We have no doubt
   that our partnership will be extremely beneficial to both companies, as
   well as to our customers, who remain our top priority."

   Kirill Gorynya, Co-founder of Beskontakt LLC:

   "We are confident that this new partnership will not only help Koshelek to
   scale its market presence but also to increase its value to users by
   merging all checkout stages - from displaying a loyalty card to processing
   payment - into a single convenient, safe and easy-to-use scenario.
   Regardless of their smartphone model and brand, Koshelek users will soon
   be able to receive discounts, accrue and spend bonus points, pay by
   instalments, receive cashback and more. I would like to emphasise that
   Koshelek will remain a completely open and independent platform, ready to
   integrate the services and solutions of our business partners, including
   banks and financial institutions."

   About the Application

   The Koshelek app is a leading card aggregator in Russia and Belarus. The
   app has over 20 million registered users, of which 11 million do their
   daily shopping using discount and bank cards stored in the application.
   The number of digital cards stored in the app by users exceeds 300
   million.

   Koshelek is a unique communication channel that businesses can use to
   interact with their customers at point of sale. Koshelek's partners
   include 19 of the 30 companies with the largest loyalty programs in
   Russia, including X5 Retail Group, Magnit, Lenta, O'key, Eldorado, Kari,
   leading manufacturers of FMCG goods and over 60 banks, including the
   largest players in the financial market. The app has an integrated mobile
   contactless payment service, Koshelek Pay, which is one of the only
   payment services available in Huawei's new smartphones.

   The Koshelek app is available in the App Store, the Google Play store and
   in Huawei's AppGallery. The App Store named Koshelek among its top 20 apps
   in 2019 and 2020.

   The company has been a strategic partner of Mastercard in the field of
   contactless payments since 2013. In 2017, Deloitte recognized it as one of
   Russia's top 10 best startups. In 2019, research undertaken by Skolkovo
   cited the company as the most innovative startup in the retail sphere,
   while Business Petersburg (Delovoy Peterburg) named it the best IT
   project. In 2020, Koshelek won the FINAWARD prize for innovation and
   achievement in the financial sector, and ranked 3rd in the Services
   category for the Runet Rating national award for websites and mobile apps.

   The developer of the Koshelek app, Beskontakt LLC, was established in 2012
   within a corporate investment fund i-Free.

    

   For enquiries:
   Tinkoff
                                  Tinkoff
   Artem Lebedev
   PR Department                  Larisa Chernysheva
                                  IR Department
   + 7 495 648-10-00 (ext. 2202)
                                  + 7 495 648-10-00 (ext. 2312)
   Alexandr Leonov
                                  Andrey Pavlov-Rusinov
   + 7 495 648-10-00 (ext. 35738)
                                   2 ir@tinkoff.ru
    1 pr@tinkoff.ru

    

   TCS Group Holding PLC

   TCS Group Holding PLC is an innovative provider of online retail financial
   services. Its portfolio includes Tinkoff Bank, the mobile virtual network
   operator Tinkoff Mobile, Tinkoff Insurance, the management company Tinkoff
   Capital, Tinkoff Software DC, a network of development hubs in Russia's
   largest cities, and Tinkoff Education. The Group is currently developing
   the Tinkoff ecosystem, which offers financial and lifestyle services.

    

   The Group was founded in 2006 by Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov and has
   been listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Moscow Exchange.

    

   The Group's largest business is Tinkoff Bank, a fully online bank that
   serves over 13 million customers and represents the core of the Tinkoff
   ecosystem.

   Tinkoff Bank is the second largest player in the Russian credit card
   market, with a share of 14.0%. The 2020 IFRS net income of TCS Group
   Holding PLC amounted to RUB 44.2 billion. The ROE was 40.6%.

    

   With no branches, the Group serves all its customers remotely via online
   channels and a cloud-based call centre. To ensure smooth delivery of the
   Group's products, the Group has a proprietary nationwide network of
   representatives.

    

   Global Finance named Tinkoff Bank the world's Best Digital Consumer Bank
   in 2018 and 2020, the Best Digital Consumer Bank in Russia in 2020, 2018,
   2016 and 2015, and the Best Digital Consumer Bank in Central and Eastern
   Europe in 2019 and 2020. The Banker recognised Tinkoff Bank as the Bank of
   the Year in Russia in 2017 and 2013, and as the Best-performing Russian
   Bank in 2020. The bank's mobile app has consistently received top industry
   ratings and awards (by Deloitte in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and by Global
   Finance in 2018 and 2020) and in 2020, was ranked by Forbes among the
   top-3 Best Russian Employers.

    

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   ISIN:          US87238U2033
   Category Code: ACQ
   TIDM:          TCS
   LEI Code:      549300XQRN9MR54V1W18
   Sequence No.:  102135
   EQS News ID:   1190682


    
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References

   Visible links
   1. mailto:pr@tinkoff.ru
   2. mailto:ir@tcsbank.ru


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