Virtus.pro 2022 sale was worth seven figures

One of the largest companies on the Russian market, the technology company VK, revealed the amount of money it received after the sale of Virtus.pro several months ago.

Let’s recall that Virtus.pro is a Russian organization that has been in the crosshairs of top-level esports tournament organizers due to its ties with the Russian government. Of course, all this is due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is now more than a year old.

VK discloses how much it received for the sale of Virtus.pro in its annual summary

In one of the clauses of VK’s 2022 annual report, the Russian tech giant detailed the amount of money they received from the sale of Virtus.pro. According to the document, the esports organization was sold for 174 million rubles, which would come to approximately €2.1 million.

“In Q4 2022, the Group signed a sale agreement and transferred control of the subsidiary to VIRTUS PRO Ltd. for 174 million rubles; the Book value of net assets and capital items withdrawn was 161 million rubles. As a result, the Group recognized the profit from the sale of the subsidiary for 13 million rubles.”

Virtus.pro and the controversy surrounding its sale

In September 2022, Virtus.pro announced that Aram Karamanukyan, a billionaire Armenian businessman, was the one who purchased the organization.

The truth is that Karamanukyan was not very well known in esports, as it was the first time he entered this world. But, on the other hand, this businessman is well known on the European continent for his business in construction and hospitality.

At that time, many people in the community began to speculate that Virtus.pro made this move to dodge the sanctions imposed by the tournament organizers. However, at the time, Karamanukyan rejected these allegations and said the purchase was made due to market conditions.

Virtus.pro and the Russian government

For those who don’t know, the Virtus.pro organization was owned by ESforce, one of the largest esports organizations in the world, but they are said to have very close ties with the Russian government. Since December 2021, Sogaz, one of the Russian government insurers, has controlled VK. This company is among those sanctioned by the European Union due to the Ukraine Invasion.

Therefore, ESL and BLAST, two of the world’s largest organizers of esports events, followed the guidelines of the European Union, and Russian teams with ties to the state government cannot participate in their tournaments. Because of this, Virtus.pro has had to compete under the name Outsiders for a year and under a neutral banner.

While the Dota 2 team has been able to play under their name for several months, it has not been the same for CS:GO, which still plays under “Outsiders.”

While the waters had calmed down around this situation, it all got worse when Nikolai Petrossian, former CEO of ESforce, was appointed CEO of Virtus.pro.

At that moment, the rumor that Virtus.pro is still on very good terms with the Russian government gained momentum, as it is no coincidence that the former CEO of ESforce became the new CEO of the organization.

Header: Virtus.pro