Kostin did not rule out VTB’s refusal to buy a stake in Yandex – Kommersant

VTB is not actively negotiating the purchase of a stake in Yandex, said the head of the bank Andrey Kostin. He explained that VTB was applying “at a different level.” Now the price has become higher, the founder of the company, Arkady Volozh, has left, and the “risk of sanctions” has remained. According to Mr. Kostin, some other contenders for a stake in Yandex have “already been knocked out.”

“I’m not sure that we will go to Yandex. We have 1.1% of everything there now. It was a portfolio investment. We never had the desire to steer Yandex, and for a portfolio investment it is important to correctly determine the entry price. There are many factors in the deal now, one of them is the increase in price compared to the original one. We offered on a different level. Therefore, now we are in the so-called stand by: we are not conducting active negotiations,” Mr. Kostin told Reuters.

The journalists clarified whether VTB offered a deal “at the level of the company’s valuation of $7 billion” – this is the number before voiced Bloomberg as the value of 51% of the company. Mr. Kostin answered in the negative. According to him, the cost of $ 7 billion was announced recently, the bank applied “at a different price level, lower.”

VTB was in a group of several investors who first discussed the purchase of 15%, later – 10%. “I don’t know how many contenders will eventually remain. Perhaps their number will narrow under the new conditions, because, as far as I know, we were not the only ones who found these conditions not very comfortable,” the head of the bank said. He also said that VTB’s bid was not among those approved by Yandex’s board of directors, because the bank’s bid “was at a different price level.”

The head of VTB, answering the question of whether the bank will participate in the transaction, said that “a lot of things have changed.” “For us, these are non-core assets, these are purely financial investments, where you need to know how much you entered and how much you left. We believe that Yandex has good prospects – on the one hand, on the other hand, the company has its own characteristics, Arkady Volozh himself left the company, left. There is an uncertainty factor, there is always the risk of sanctions and so on,” he added.

Andrei Kostin does not yet know whether the bank will sell the remaining 1.1% of Yandex. He noted that VTB had received these shares a long time ago and might sell them “to the market later, if it works.” The bank will hold securities if they cost below the purchase price.

In mid-May, Bloomberg reported that billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Vagit Alekperov offered to buy out at least 51% of Yandex’s shares. Mr. Potanin, according to the agency, represented a group of investors, which included Roman Abramovich and representatives of VTB, and could include Severgroup CEO Alexei Mordashov. According to Forbes, Mr. Abramovich refused to participate in the deal. Mr. Kostin confirmedthat the bank is interested in buying a stake in Yandex. However, later, at the end of May, the board of directors of Yandex decidedthat new shareholders, after entering the capital of the company, will not receive control over it. The Council has considered all applications from potential investors and is checking for sanctions risks.

Leonid Uvarchev