Potanin and Alekperov against transferring 5% of Yandex to Kudrin – Kommersant

Potential investors in Yandex’s Russian business, including billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Vagit Alekperov, want the size of the option package (5%) of Yandex corporate development advisor Alexei Kudrin to be revised. This is reported by Forbes with reference to sources. Alexey Kudrin, Arkady Volozh and Vladimir Potanin declined to comment. Vagit Alekperov did not respond to Forbes’ request.

Alexey Kudrin became an advisor on corporate development of Yandex in December 2022. According to Forbes, an option package in the amount of 5% of the shares of the sub-holding of the Dutch Yandex NV, an international company of the joint-stock company (ICAO) Yandex, was offered to him by the founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, for his help in separating its Russian and international business. However, the deal to transfer the option to Alexei Kudrin dragged on. In December 2023, Yandex MCAO was registered in a special administrative region in the Kaliningrad region.

According to the publication’s sources, now we may not be talking about reducing Alexei Kudrin’s option, but about calculating the option package after achieving the appropriate results. A source close to Yandex, as well as an investor interlocutor, told Forbes that billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Vagit Alekperov are proposing to reconsider the size of Alexei Kudrin’s option package.

Now the upper option level for Alexei Kudrin, according to the publication’s source, is expected to be 2–3%. According to him, Vladimir Potanin and Vagit Alekperov insist on lowering this threshold to 1.5%. A Forbes source in the investment community says that as a result, Alexey Kudrin may qualify for options on at least 2.5% of Yandex shares.

Alexey Kudrin has been working as a corporate development advisor at Yandex since December 9, 2022. For the transition to the company and assistance in dividing its Russian and international assets, the founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, offered Alexey Kudrin a 5% stake in Yandex, Forbes wrote in September 2022. Mr. Kudrin will receive a stake in the company through options, a source close to him clarified then.

The source of the publication in the investment community associates the change in Alexey Kudrin’s option package with the timing of the restructuring of Yandex. According to a source close to Yandex, it was assumed that the deal would be concluded before the end of 2022, with intellectual property licenses for Arkady Volozh.

On January 15, the capitalization of Yandex on the Moscow Exchange amounted to 972.5 billion rubles, or $11 billion at the Central Bank exchange rate, and the price of 3% of Yandex was 29.2 billion rubles. ($331 million).

Yandex announced Arkady Volozh’s departure from the company and his resignation from the board of directors of Yandex NV in June 2022, after Mr. Volozh came under EU sanctions. Alexey Kudrin came under US sanctions in July 2023.

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