The shareholders of Russia-based Independent Registrar Company completed the acquisition of its main rival Registrar R.O.S.T., Kommersant reported Dec. 23, estimating that the value of the transaction was around 1 billion Russian rubles.

Independent Registrar Company and Registrar R.O.S.T. are leaders in the Russian market of shares and securities registry services, with their 2015 revenues amounting to about 930 million rubles and 1.08 billion rubles, respectively, Kommersant said. The merged company will have a market share of about 30%, Vedomosti noted the same day.

At least one similar M&A deal is expected to be announced in 2017, Kommersant added. Experts cited by the newspaper said consolidation in the registry services market will mainly affect midsize registrars forced to operate in an increasingly competitive environment.

As of Dec. 22, US$1 was equivalent to 60.99 Russian rubles.