“Yandex” landed Uber – Kommersant
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The American Uber completely left the Russian market five years after the creation of a joint venture to order a taxi with Yandex. The Russian company bought out the remaining 29% stake in Yandex.Taxi from Uber for $702.5 million, with a 60% discount to the share assessment made in 2021. Uber could be in a hurry to sell the asset, fearing tougher conditions for the sale, and Yandex thus consolidated the direction with an annual increase in turnover.
Yandex bought out the remaining share of Uber in the Yandex.Taxi group, which includes services for ordering a taxi, carsharing and renting scooters, announced on April 21 Russian company.
Uber owned 29% in Yandex.Taxi, the transaction value was $702.5 million. As noted in Yandex, the acquisition completes the consolidation of ridetech and foodtech directions.
Previously, Yandex had already bought out shares in Yandex.Food, Yandex.Lavka, Yandex.Delivery, as well as in the direction of unmanned vehicles and delivery robots from Uber. Yandex stressed that the changes will not affect the operation of services for users and partners.
Yandex and Uber announced the creation of a joint venture in the field of online travel booking in Russia and neighboring countries in February 2018. The parties invested $225 million and $100 million respectively in the company, about 59.3% of the business was received by Yandex, 36.9% by Uber, and 3.8% by management.
In 2021, Yandex increased the stake to 71% and received the right to buy out the remaining share of Uber within two years at a price in the range of $1.8-2 billion. Thus, the last deal was closed with a discount of about 60% to the lower limit of the announced range.
A 50% discount is included in the terms of approval of transactions for the sale of assets by foreigners when considering transactions at the commission for the control of foreign investment, M&A consultants said.
Dmitry Gabyshev, managing director of Peregrine Capital, says that the discount could also take into account the potential tightening of requirements for the sale of assets for investors from unfriendly countries, for example, participation in the payment of a one-time fee to the budget. Therefore, incentives to close the deal faster could be on both sides, he notes. The joint venture between Yandex and Uber MLU BV is registered in the Netherlands. Andrey Shpak, partner of Tomashevskaya & Partners, says that if the transaction and settlements take place between structures in the Netherlands, then there should be no obstacles to transferring money.
Gazprombank analyst Sergey Libin notes that back in March 2022, it became known about Uber’s plans to exit business with Yandex as soon as possible. Despite the discount to the original price, Uber will get the money for the share and leave the market, where in recent years it is unlikely to have actively participated, he believes.
Vladimir Bespalov, an independent analyst in the technology, media and telecommunications sector, believes that the assessment of Uber’s share of $ 1.8-2 billion rubles. in the current conditions, it simply “lost relevance”. For “Yandex”, according to him, it is attractive, since the taxi ordering service “is distinguished by a combination of growth in turnover and profitability.”
The Ridetech direction, which includes the taxi ordering service, Yandex.Drive and the rental of scooters, was the second in terms of revenue in 2022 with a share of 21% in the revenue structure of all Yandex, follows from the presentation of the company. Over the year, the segment’s revenue grew by 43% to RUB 121.9 billion. The number of taxi rides in the fourth quarter of 2022 increased by 17% year-on-year, the number of active Yandex.Go users per month at the end of the year was estimated at 40.2 million people.
The head of the competence center of the International Eurasian Taxi Forum, Stanislav Schwagerus, notes that the joint venture with Uber allowed Yandex to improve its own taxi ordering service through access to the technologies of the American company. But “in the situation that has developed over the past year” companies from unfriendly countries “should not have access to Russian information systems even from the passenger taxi sector,” the expert believes.
According to Sergey Libin, “Yandex” remains virtually the only major player in the taxi market and “can manage the business without regard to competitors.”
But, he continues, drastic changes in the tariff policy should not be expected, given the rise in taxi prices in 2022, which already included an increase in car prices.
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