a group of Russian investors wants to buy out 100% of the Yandex sub-holding – Kommersant

A group of Russian investors is focusing on buying out 100% of the Yandex sub-holding (MOEX: YNDX)a”, which is being created in the Kaliningrad region for the restructuring of the parent Dutch Yandex NV, sources said Forbes. Investors may subsequently purchase a significant part of the additional issue of its shares as part of an exchange for Yandex NV securities, but the exchange itself remains in question.

Yandex launched a restructuring procedure in 2022. Russian business should come under the control of a new Russian company in the Kaliningrad region. Shares of the international company joint stock company “Yandex” were registered Central Bank on December 25.

Initially, information appeared in the media that a group of seven potential investors were offered to buy out 51% of the shares of the Russian Yandex. Bloomberg reported in November that a sale of 100% of the Russian business was possible, rather than 51%. Investors were concerned about the partnership with Yandex NV, given the statement by one of the founders of the company, Arkady Volozh, about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

“Now a group of Russian investors is focusing on the idea of ​​buying out 100% of Kaliningrad Yandex. And then, as part of the exchange of shares of Yandex NV, they intend to purchase a significant part of the additional issue of ICAO Yandex,” a source told Forbes.

According to the magazine, investors remain at odds over the share exchange scheme. Disputes arose over the possibility of exchanging shares of Yandex NV for shares of the Russian Yandex. The idea is allegedly not supported by the chairman of the advisory board of the ADB Management company, billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk, as well as one of the heads of the presidential administration. They explain this by the risk of “dilution of the shares of some participants in the pool of potential investors in Yandex.”

According to the magazine, several participants in the pool of potential investors in Yandex entered the capital of Yandex NV. One of the possible buyers is the president of the Interros holding and MMC Norilsk Nickel, billionaire Vladimir Potanin. Transactions with these securities take place on the over-the-counter market, since trading on the American Nasdaq exchange has been suspended. The magazine’s sources claim that the volume of Mr. Potanin’s transactions, which took place through foreign companies, was measured in tens of millions of dollars. The shares, among others, were sold by “unfriendly holders” – foreign funds who “understood that they had little hope” from these investments.

By mid-December, Russian investors could have about 45% of Yandex NV shares. As stated, the volume of securities received by Mr. Potanin exceeds the positions of other Russian investors. According to Forbes, the main shareholder of Lukoil PJSC, billionaire Vagit Alekperov, and another company were also interested in the shares.

The representative of Yandex refused to comment on the information; the representative of Interros, Andrei Kirpichnikov, did not answer Forbes’ questions on the merits. LUKOIL representative Alexander Kremenetsky noted that these issues do not relate to the activities of the company itself. ADB Management did not respond to the request. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, answering the question why Sergei Kiriyenko might oppose a large-scale exchange of Yandex shares and under what conditions it is possible to achieve his consent on this issue, said that “these are corporate issues” that the Kremlin does not comment on.

Read more about how Yandex can be reorganized in the Kommersant FM article. “Yandex is reviewing strategies”.