Moscow: 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 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 per cent rise in first-half net profit to 5.1 billion roubles ($151.8 million) 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 per cent in 2013, up from previous guidance of 25-28 per cent but still below last year's growth in sales of 39 per cent.
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