Yandex NV, registered in the Netherlands, has reached an agreement on the sale of its Russian division. The consequences of the war in Ukraine forced the tech giant to split.
Dutch company Yandex NV sold “Russian Google” to a newly created group of “consortium of private investors of the Russian Federation”, consisting of 50 people. The sale price of $5.2 billion takes into account a discount of at least 50% from the market value. The deal would be the biggest corporate exit from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.
According to Western media, the agreement prepared by the Kremlin will lead to the fact that the largest technological player in the country will be completely under the ownership of Russian investors and consolidate the exit. Yandex from international technical circles.
Impact of the war on Ukraine
Once upon a time Yandekc was seen as one of the few Russian companies with the potential to become a global player in the world, having developed leading online advertising and travel services, as well as a powerful search engine.
The company’s co-founder Arkady Volozh, who moved from Russia to Israel in 2014, was subject to European sanctions in 2022, and in the summer of 2023 criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “barbarism. ” This eventually prompted the Kremlin to push for nationalization Yandex.
Ultimately, however, Moscow’s fear of a brain drain helped curb this prospect and led to an uneasy agreement. The Kremlin held negotiations with the Dutch Yandex NV about 18 months to try to separate the Russian stake from the parent company.
Wherein Yandex NV will remain for the development of a portfolio of international companies and other non-Russian assets, including a cloud-based artificial intelligence platform and a developer of autonomous driving technologies.
According to CNN, Yandex has always sought to present itself as independent from the influence of the Kremlin, and this task has been very difficult.
Terms of sale
The agreement calculates the market capitalization Yandex to $10.2 billion based on the weighted average of its shares on the Moscow Exchange over three months. At the end of 2021, before the Russian invasion, the market value Yandex is approaching $30 billion, writes Bloomberg.
The sales agreement will be concluded in two stages and is structured with a discount of at least 50%, which is required by Russia for the exit of companies registered in countries that Moscow considers unfriendly.
Almost half of the transaction value (at least 230 billion rubles) is planned to be paid in cash, and outside of Russia – in Chinese yuan. The rest will be part of the shares, including 176 million shares in the Dutch parent company that the buyer already owns or is acquiring.
Who is buying?
The deal still needs to be approved at a shareholders meeting. In case of a positive vote Yandex the investment fund will have Consortium. First under the control of a supervisor Solid Management.
An interesting fact is that Consortium. First will be registered only by the end of 2023 in the Kaliningrad Special Economic Zone, and not in Moscow. The main owners of the company are (50 people in total):
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fund managed by managers Yandex (by the way, they will receive the largest share);
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Alexander Chachava, known as the buyer My.Gamesgaming business VK;
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head of deposit Infinitum Pavel Prass;
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LUKOIL group (will have 10% of the business);
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former top manager Gazprombusinessman and representative of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Alexander Ryazanov.
It is worth noting that for new investors there are no US or EU sanctions.
The CEO is expected Yandex Artem Savinovsky will stay. In addition, it is reported that the shares are distributed so that the company is led by the current management.
The Kremlin has already backed the deal.
“We can accept the sale agreement reached by the shareholders. The Russian management of the company will remain the main owner,” said Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.
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Source: korrespondent

I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.