Translated material
Alexey Kudrin will finally discuss the fate of Yandex at a meeting with Vladimir Putin
The story of Arkady Volozh's divorce from Yandex and the division of assets is nearing completion. As The Bell found out, Alexei Kudrin may meet with Vladimir Putin as early as this week to agree on the final configuration of the asset swap and a new management structure for Yandex. As a result, Kudrin himself will receive a stake in Yandex and head the structure that will make key decisions in the company with the participation of the current management. The structure of Vladimir Potanin and other Russian investors may also be among the shareholders of Yandex.
What's happened
Putin's meeting with his longtime acquaintance and still the head of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, at which the fate of Yandex will be discussed, could take place as early as Thursday, a source familiar with the negotiations told The Bell. Another The Bell source says the meeting could take place this or next week. At the meeting, Kudrin is to agree on a reorganization of the business of the largest Russian IT company, as a result of which the founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, may lose control of the company, and in exchange be given the opportunity to develop a number of its businesses abroad.
The fact that such negotiations are underway, The Bell told in June. The deal required approval from the Kremlin, and to help implement the plan, Volozh enlisted the head of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, promising shares or stock options in the company in exchange. Kudrin himself has since been preparing to move to Yandex. Officially, neither he nor his representatives in the department commented on this.
In the summer, the discussion of the deal was complicated by the unresolved issue with the holders of Yandex bonds, which put the company on the brink of default. But in the end, they managed to agree on restructuring, and negotiations on the future of Yandex again moved into an active stage.
On September 15, Kudrin also had a personal meeting with Putin, during which he asked for permission to transfer from his position to work at Yandex, wrote , citing its sources in September. Meduza
By November, the negotiators managed to decide on the general configuration of the future deal, sources say The Bell. However, it is still not agreed with Putin.
See also: "History of human tragedies." How the war divorced Arkady Volozh from the managers of "Yandex"
What will happen to Yandex
If the deal goes through, control of Yandex will pass from Arkady Volozh to a new entity led by Kudrin, sources tell The Bell.
The deal will have a complex configuration:
- Now the parent company of "Yandex" is Yandex NV, registered in Holland. After the restructuring, "Yandex" will have another parent company - probably, it will be registered in Russia.
- It is assumed that the new parent company "Yandex" in terms of making key decisions will be controlled by a specially created structure, which will be headed by Kudrin, the Bell interlocutors say. The current top management of "Yandex" will enter the same supervising body, the source close to the company specified. The decision-making process of this body, along with all other details of the business reorganization, has yet to be approved by the shareholders of the Dutch Yandex NV
- Kudrin will receive about 5% of the shares in the new parent company Yandex, said the interlocutors of The Bell and the publications Agency News and Forbes .
- Also, a pool of investors may be among the minority shareholders of the new company. Among the likely participants in this pool, sources name the structures of Vladimir Potanin. The minority shareholders of Yandex NV already include the structures of Roman Abramovich and VTB Bank (whether they will increase their shares as a result of the reorganization is unclear). UPD : a representative of Abramovich called the information about the intention of his structures to increase his stake in Yandex after its reorganization incorrect.
- Yandex NV, whose main shareholder is Volozh, will receive a stake in the new parent company Yandex as a result of the reorganization. About what share in question, the sources of The Bell do not specify. Through Yandex NV, Volozh and its other shareholders are likely to remain minority shareholders of the Russian Yandex.
In addition to approval in the Kremlin, shareholders of Yandex NV will still have to vote for the reorganization. Trading in the company's shares in the United States has been suspended since the beginning of the war.
How Yandex is managed now
How Yandex is managed now
Formally, the entire business of Yandex through the Dutch Yandex NV was controlled by the structures of Arkady Volozh and other managers of the company (together they owned 57.7% of the votes). But, having fallen under European sanctions in the spring, Volozh transferred the right to vote with his package to the board of directors.
In addition, since 2019, in agreement with the Kremlin, Yandex NV has had a “golden share”, which was received by a specially created structure called the Public Interest Fund. With the help of this “golden share”, the fund received the right to block any transactions with more than 10% of the shares of an IT company, to appoint two directors to the board of directors of Yandex, and other significant rights.
Read more about the impact on the life of "Yandex" received "Public Interest Fund", we told here .
What will Volozh do?
Volozh himself, in exchange for control in Yandex, should be given the right to independently develop several of the company's businesses abroad.
For many years, the founder of Yandex dreamed of turning the company into an international player. Some of the projects, such as self-driving cars, were originally aimed at Western markets. Volozh was also going to develop Yandex cloud services abroad - it was about expansion to countries outside Europe and the United States, where there are no cloud technologies of their own.
After the outbreak of the war, Volozh wanted to separate from Yandex that part of the business that, in the conditions of Russia's isolation, could develop separately from the company abroad. We are talking about drones, cloud services and the Yandex.Practice educational project. It is assumed that successful businesses in Russia (the same clouds) will continue to develop domestically, but the company will somehow share the rights to their work abroad.
The Bell sent inquiries to the Accounts Chamber, Dmitry Peskov's office, Vladimir Potanin's company, and VTB. The representative of "Yandex" declined to comment.