After a year and a half of negotiations, Yandex founder Arkady Volozh and foreign shareholders have reached a deal to part ways with the company’s Russian assets.
The Russian IT giant’s Netherlands-based parent company announced Monday that it will sell a large portion of its operations to a consortium of Russian investors before rebranding and continuing to develop its remaining international properties.
The Russian investment fund making the purchase, called Consortium.First, includes current members of Yandex’s senior management, a fund owned by Lukoil, a company owned by LETA Capital founder Alexander Chachava, and an LLC owned by former Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Ryazanov.
Sources who spoke to The Bell and Meduza previously named Interros conglomerate owner Vladimir Potanin, Lukoil founder Vagit Alekperov, and Kismet Capital Group owner Ivan Tavrin as well as VTB Group, New People party head Alexey Nechaev, and Russian Direct Investment Fund head Kirill Dmitriev as leading contenders for taking over the company. Some of the investors may represent the interests of billionaire and Putin ally Yury Kovalchuk, who sources named as the figure most likely to become the company’s ultimate purchaser in the future.
The Russian consortium will reportedly pay 375 billion rubles, or about $5.2 billion, for its portion of Yandex. According to Forbes Russia, the deal may include a 10 percent “exit tax” to Russia’s federal budget that will “de facto” be paid by the buyers.
The Bell has previously reported that after Yandex’s restructuring, the Russian company would be managed by former deputy CEO Tigran Khudaverdyan, e-commerce and logistics services head Daniil Shuleiko, General Director Artyom Savinovsky, and Alexey Kudrin, a corporate development advisor to Yandex and the former head of Russia’s Audit Chamber.
However, because Kudrin came under U.S. sanctions while negotiations were underway, it’s unclear what role he will ultimately play in managing the new properties. Forbes reported earlier this month that it’s possible he will receive just a 1.5 percent stake rather than the five percent he was originally promised.