Yandex Aims to Complete Stage One of Russian Divestment by May

Bloomberg News, Bloomberg News

A courier from food delivery service Yandex Eda waits for dispatch in Moscow, Russia.

, Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Yandex NV has extended through April the timeframe for completing the first stage of a $5.2 billion deal to sell its Russian business, the Dutch-based company said in a statement.

The divestment, which took more than a year to negotiate, opens the way for Yandex, which has been registered in the Netherlands since 2007, to develop some international projects while avoiding controversy around Russia’s war in Ukraine, now into its third year.

Under the agreement reached in February, the Dutch-based company will sell the assets to a consortium of buyers that includes senior managers of Yandex in Russia, a fund owned by oil producer Lukoil PJSC, and other investors. The price tag of 475 billion rubles makes it the highest-valued deal yet to exit Russia.

Yandex operates Russia’s most popular search engine and also owns a popular ride-hailing application and an ecommerce platform in Russia.

The Russian unit represented more than 95% of the Yandex’s consolidated revenues in the first nine months of 2023, and about 95% of its consolidated assets and employees.

Read more: Yandex Strikes Record $5.2 Billion Wartime Deal to Exit Russia

The transaction is divided into two stages, Yandex said in February, when it said the first stage was expected to be completed by April 2. That’s been extended until April 30 “to provide time to satisfy the remaining conditions of the first closing,” the company said.

“We anticipate satisfaction of the remaining conditions to the first closing in the coming weeks,” it added.

Within stage one, Yandex is to sell about 68% of its Russian assets to the consortium, according to a disclosure statement on the website for the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Stage two, set to be completed within about seven weeks of the first closing, will see transfer of the remaining stake in the Russian assets.

Yandex NV will retain a portfolio of international businesses and other non-Russian assets to develop, including an AI cloud platform and a developer of self-driving technologies.

Read more: Yandex Founder Seeks Sanctions Lift After Condemning Russia