MOSCOW: After the divestment of the Russian business of Yandex its managers will become its largest co-owners. Yandex N.V., the Dutch paren...
MOSCOW: After the divestment of the Russian business of Yandex its managers will become its largest co-owners. Yandex N.V., the Dutch parent company, will change its name and won’t be allowed to create services similar to those of Yandex for five years. TASS has assembled all of the main facts about the company’s restructuring.
About transaction
On February 5, Yandex N.V. announced the sale of its Yandex business to a consortium of private investors for 475 bln rubles ($5.21 bln).
According to the decision, Yandex N.V. will cease to be the parent company of the group and will change its name and stop using Yandex brands by July 31, 2024.
New structure
IJSC Yandex, registered at the end of 2023 in Kaliningrad, is set to become the new parent company of Yandex. "Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Yandex N.V. will sell its entire interest in IJSC Yandex, an international joint stock company incorporated in Russia that will hold all of Yandex's assets and operations in Russia and certain international markets," the Dutch company said in a statement.
The main owner of the new parent company will be the closed mutual fund Consortium. First. Yandex managers will be part of the new FMP structure, which will own 35% of the closed mutual fund Consortium. First. That means that Yandex management will be the largest co-owner of the company. It is expected that FMP will include up to 50 people, but none of them will have more than 5% in Yandex.
The structure of entrepreneur Alexander Chachava will receive 25% of the share capital. The companies linked with Russian oil major Lukoil and businessman Pavel Prass will receive 15% each. Another 10% will be held by a structure of investor Alexander Ryazanov.
Accordingly, none of the co-owners will have a controlling stake in the consortium.
Asset division
As a result of the deal, Yandex N.V. will be prohibited from creating and developing services similar to Yandex services for 5 years worldwide.
Yandex will retain the services and assets of the Yandex N.V. group, except for foreign startups - Nebius, Toloka, Avride and TripleTen, as well as a data center in Finland. These startups can be developed in any country except the Russian Federation and Belarus, but they are also prohibited from developing in such a way as to create competition for Yandex services
It is planned that Yandex will continue to develop cloud technologies, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and other promising technologies.
Preparations for transaction approval
It is expected that the shareholders of Yandex N.V. will approve the transaction to sell the Russian asset of Yandex at their meeting on March 7.
According to the documents for shareholder voting on the business restructuring, the group of Yandex investors was checked for sanctions. None of the group members is subject to restrictions of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
After the deal is approved by the shareholders and the group receives all regulatory approvals, holders of Yandex N.V. class "A" shares in the Russian depository infrastructure will be invited to exchange them or to buy them out.
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