The owner of Nielsen and GfK sold assets in Russia

International research group Nielsen/GfK has closed a deal to sell its Russian assets. We are talking about two companies that were engaged in the analysis of the consumer market and consumer behavior – the former GfK (since 2025 it operates under the ICMR brand) and Nielsen.

As a result of the transaction, 60% of GFC-Rus LLC was acquired by the company of Russian venture investor Konstantin Leonovich, another 40% is a company owned by GFC-Rus CEO Alexei Dorofeev, the ICMR press service told RBC.

At the same time, the company of Konstantin Leonovich acted as a buyer of Russian assets of Nielsen, which will also be headed by Alexei Dorofeev, ICMR said. According to the USRUL, the owner of 100% of LLC "Ay C Nielsen" on September 25 became owned by Leonovich LLC "Conversion".

The amount of the transaction in ICMR was not disclosed. Both companies will continue to engage in consumer market research, retail audits, monitoring and analyzing customer behavior. The purchase will actively develop key areas of work, preserve the team and existing contracts, and continue to fulfill obligations to partners in full, Dorofeev stressed.

Nielsen and GfK can be called the main metering companies in the market of consumer analytics and market research. “The purchase provides an opportunity to continue using expertise and data for all players, actively develop the market and build key competencies,” he said.

Alexey Dorofeev headed the Russian division of GfK in October 2019 and led the company through the localization process. Konstantin Leonovich owns communication agencies "Key", SALO, research company Vox Populi, Neurollab neurolaboratory, computer vision vendor L-Labs, etc. He is also the Managing Partner of the Amberdata Internet Anonymous Data Management Platform, which is owned by the National Media Group (NMG). It is used by the advertising market to adjust advertising to the target audience. Amberdata is also one of the official operators of advertising data (ADD), through which information about all advertising on the Internet is transferred by law to Roskomnadzor.

GfK came to Russia in 1991 and has been specializing in marketing research for over 35 years. Nielsen has been operating in Russia since 1994, providing data on retail sales and consumer behavior in the FMCG segment. Since 2017, the company has also been tracking online sales, and in 2019, it localized the business, creating the legal entity Nielsen Data Factory LLC. Their key asset is panel data on consumer preferences, which was collected in partnership with major retail chains, including X5, Magnit, Lenta and Metro. They are used by retailers and manufacturers for pricing, assortment management and marketing strategies.