Yandex NV agreed on the sale of the Russian “Yandex”

The Netherlands Yandex NV concluded a deal to sell the Russian “Yandex” for 475 billion rubles to a consortium of private investors and company managers. This is stated in the press release of the Dutch company. The transaction amount takes into account a discount of at least 50% of the market value in accordance with the requirements of the Foreign Investment Control Commission of the Ministry of Finance of Russia.

By July 31 of this year, Yandex NV must change its name and stop using Yandex brands.

The new main company of the group instead of Yandex NV will be the International Joint Stock Company (MKAO) “Yandex”, registered in the Kaliningrad Region.

The main owner of this MKAO will be the closed joint investment fund “Consortium. First” headed by the managers of “Yandex”. As stated in the press release, in its composition of 50 people there will be no persons under the sanctions of the USA, EU, Great Britain or Switzerland.

Also, a part of the company will go to the structures of the founder of the Leta Capital venture fund Oleksandr Chachava, the Lukoil mutual fund, and the structures of the head of the Infinitum depository Pavel Prass. Shareholder shares are not disclosed, but the company emphasizes that none of them has control.

Artem Savynovsky will remain the general director of Yandex. The company will also retain businesses, services and assets of the Yandex NV group, with the exception of foreign startups and a data center in Finland

The control of the Dutch company will be shared by the founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, who opposed the war in Ukraine, and foreign shareholders, among whom were the largest Western funds before the war, The Bell and Meduza report with reference to sources.

The transaction has not yet entered into force.

• The deal for the withdrawal of foreign shareholders from Yandex began to be discussed immediately after the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022.
• Earlier, the business media wrote that Yandex’s business could be divided into an international and a Russian part, while the Russian part was supposed to go to investors from Russia. “Meduza” and The Bell wrote in May that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his consent to the deal on the Yandex section.
• In November, Reuters, citing sources, reported that Yandex NV is considering the possibility of selling all of its Russian assets at once by the end of 2023. Taking into account the requirement to sell the asset at a 50% discount, the value of the transaction was estimated at five to six billion dollars.
• Reuters interlocutors noted that the Russian authorities are not nationalizing “Yandex” due to fear of brain drain from the company.