2023-10-26 23:22:58
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Negotiations on the sale of Yandex to a consortium of Russian investors have moved forward, Forbes writes and sources confirm to The Bell. A controlling stake in the Russian Yandex may go to a consortium of investors, each of whom will receive a little more than 7%, the publication claims. But it seems that Arkady Volozh can no longer count on licenses to develop the company’s technologies abroad.
The deal is expected to close before the end of the year. writes Forbes, citing a source close to the negotiations. The outcome of the case depends on the decision of the presidential administration and the board of directors of Yandex, which will have to approve the deal with sanctioned buyers, says another source of the publication.
The transaction configuration corresponds to that not once described The Bell and Meduza (recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent and an undesirable organization). Among the potential investors, the publication’s interlocutor names the VTB group, businessmen Vladimir Potanin and Ivan Tavrin, the founder of Faberlic and State Duma deputy from the New People party Alexei Nechaev, the Gazfond pension fund and RDIF General Director Kirill Dmitriev and Lukoil. About how the first deputy head of the presidential administration Sergei Kiriyenko wanted for Yandex new buyers, and found the owner of Kismet Capital Group Tavrin, Nechaev’s structure, as well as RDIF and Gazfond, we described in detail Here. New investors in this deal, according to words sources of The Bell and Meduza, may represent the interests of billionaire and friend of the president Yuri Kovalchuk.
According to Forbes sources, each of the applicants can receive 7.28% in Yandex following restructuring. However, according to The Bell’s interlocutor close to the deal, at least some of the potential buyers will be represented in the deal by other structures that are not formally associated with businessmen and companies under sanctions. This is necessary for the deal to be approved by the board of directors. There are grounds for concern here: the past pool of investors, which included Potanin, Mordashov, VTB and Alekperov (and even agreed Vladimir Putin), board of directors did not approve.
The entire company, according to a Forbes source, is valued at $5.5 billion, taking into account a 50% discount on the sale of assets to foreign investors. The Bell’s interlocutor, close to the negotiations, called the total estimate at $10.5 billion, following the discount it should be $5.2 billion. Previously, they were talking regarding an estimate of $7–7.5 billion billion, which was the same, for example, in an interview with Archyde.com in June called Andrey Kostin.
A year and a half following the start of the war, Yandex co-founder Arkady Volozh became the second Russian major businessman to clearly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For the company itself, this came as a big surprise, and for the entrepreneur’s plans to develop tech startups that had separated from Yandex abroad, it was another obstacle.
Volozh’s statement and sanctions once morest Alexei Kudrin, who is the current owner of Yandex attracted to negotiations on the deal, “the situation has greatly worsened,” Forbes quotes a source familiar with the details of the negotiations. Now the main negotiations are taking place between Vladimir Potanin and an independent member of the Yandex board of directors, co-founder of United Financial Group Charles Ryan, The Bell’s interlocutor claims.
As a result, Arkady Volozh will retain his 8.6% economic stake in the parent company Yandex NV following the transaction, The Bell’s source says. But it is unlikely that the founder of Yandex will be able to obtain licenses for the development of some of the company’s technology businesses abroad, he believes. According to another interlocutor, the foreign startups themselves – companies developing unmanned vehicles, cloud services, Praktikum and Toloka – are prepared for the fact that Volozh will not be able to obtain licenses for their development. In this case, teams may have to rewrite the code so that there are no questions regarding the use of someone else’s intellectual property.
What will happen to Kudrin’s role at Yandex following the restructuring is not yet clear. According to The Bell’s interlocutor, he will enter a special fund along with three other top managers of the company. The fund was invented as a “collective replacement for Volozh” and was supposed to become the main voting shareholder of the company and make decisions on key issues. However, this idea is also unlikely to come true, he believes: the fund of top managers will most likely not receive control of the company, control will remain with the new shareholders. The fund will only be able to count on two or three seats on the new board of directors.
“Formally, the fund really won’t get control,” says another Bell source close to the deal. “But the role of management in running the company will remain large, including at the shareholder level.” Alexey Kudrin, who was promised 5% in shares and bonuses for his help in settling the deal, will most likely receive much less.
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