Forbes spoke about the details of the sale of a controlling stake in Yandex to investors

A controlling stake in Russian Yandex may go to a consortium of investors, each of whom will receive 7.28%, it has been found out Forbes. They may also be given powers to manage the company’s board of directors. According to a publication source close to the negotiations, the value of Yandex is $5.5 billion.

According to a Forbes source, Yandex shareholders have recently intensified negotiations to attract strategic investors to the capital of the Russian company. “All parties are interested in completing the deal by the end of the year. November is on the schedule,” he clarified. At the same time, the interlocutor noted that now much depends on the administration of the President of the Russian Federation and on the board of directors of Yandex.

It is expected that as part of the deal, Yandex NV, a holding company registered in the Netherlands, will create a Russian “subsidiary” – a subholding, in which it will sell a share to a group of Russian investors, the source said. Yandex NV will bring almost the entire business of Yandex into this subholding, with the exception of some startups that “with minor reservations” now belong to the Dutch company Yandex NV. According to Forbes’ interlocutor, we are talking about the “favorite startups” of Yandex founder Arkady Volozh.

As part of the deal, Yandex NV expected to receive licenses to use some of Yandex’s intellectual property, which relates to these startups, but for now this is “a big question.” “The absence of these licenses from Yandex NV and Volozh is bad, but not a disaster. They can rewrite the code to avoid charges of intellectual property theft, but it will take about a few months to a year,” he said.

As potential investors, Forbes’ interlocutor indicated VTB, businessmen Vladimir Potanin and Ivan Tavrin, the founder of Faberlic and State Duma deputy from the New People party Alexei Nechaev, the Gazfond pension fund and the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev. According to him, a representative of LUKOIL is also participating in the negotiations.

“A scheme is being discussed under which each of the seven participants in the consortium of investors will receive 7.28% of Yandex. ”Yandex” is estimated at $5.5 billion for the entire company, taking into account a 50% discount,” said the publication’s interlocutor. According to the Russian government decree, investors from “unfriendly” countries must provide at least a 50% discount when exiting Russian assets.

Forbes notes that representatives of Yandex, VTB and the New People party declined to comment. A representative of Vladimir Potanin was unable to comment on the information about the deal. A Kismet representative denies Ivan Tavrin’s participation in negotiations on investments in Yandex. Representatives of Arkady Volozh, LUKOIL, Gazfond, RDIF, RSHB, ADB Management and Sergei Kiriyenko did not respond to a request for comment.

Yandex NV announced plans to separate the Russian business into a separate structure on November 25, 2022. The holding also intends to withdraw from the ownership of Yandex, change its name and engage in several areas, including autonomous cars. However, as reported by Frank Media and confirmed by Kommersant sources, approval of the deal was suspended for about a month and a half after Arkady Volozh spoke against Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. The amount of payments due to Yandex NV after the statement of the co-founder of Yandex decreased threefold – from almost $250 million to $70–80 million (a difference of more than $150 million).

Read more in the Kommersant article. “The owner of Yandex will be responsible for his words”.