investors will buy out Yandex through a single structure – Kommersant

The final scheme for the reorganization of Yandex (MOEX: YNDX) almost ready, said Forbes a source close to the company. According to him, Yandex can be bought out through a single structure with the participation of businessman Ivan Tavrin and billionaire Vladimir Potanin. At the same time, the source claims that Yandex managers may not gain full control over the company.

As a source told Forbes, the buyer of the Russian part of Yandex’s business could be “a single structure that will represent all sanctioned and non-sanctioned investors and which will buy everything.” “At least this is Tavrin and Potanin’s idea, and everyone rather likes it,” the interlocutor added.

The publication’s source in the company accompanying the transaction confirmed that it is “highly likely” that the company will be bought out by one structure financed by a group of investors. According to him, such a scheme will be clear to the commission for control over foreign investment. The main beneficiary will most likely be Ivan Tavrin.

Initially, it was assumed that investors would buy out the economic share of the company, and voting control would remain with the management represented by a separate fund. However, now, as a source close to Yandex told Forbes, another scheme of shareholder control is being discussed: “real control” will be transferred to a common structure that will represent the interests of a “carefully hidden” group of investors. The complex mechanism of interaction between a consortium of investors may be hidden; this issue is still being discussed, the source noted.

According to him, “some rights on a limited range of issues” will be with the company’s managers and corporate development advisor Alexei Kudrin: we are talking about the participation of management at the level of the shareholder meeting and the board of directors. “As executive managers, they will be fully fledged managers,” the source added.

In 2022, Ivan Tavrin’s Kismet Capital Group (KCG) purchased the Avito service. A KCG representative denied participation in negotiations on investments in Yandex back in October. He confirmed this information again on November 22.

November 14 Reuters citing sources, reported that the parent structure of Yandex, the Dutch Yandex NV, intends to sell the entire Russian business entirely. Agency sources estimated such a deal from about $5 billion to $6.18 billion, or 560 billion rubles. with a 50% discount on the sale of foreign assets. However, according to a Forbes source, the company can sell all assets, with the exception of the part necessary to convert Yandex NV shares into securities of the Russian holding.

“Yandex” received permission from the legal commission for restructuring at the end of October. The company’s reporting for the third quarter states that the restructuring issue will be submitted to shareholders for consideration by the end of 2023.

Anastasia Larina