Sberbank, Russia’s leading banking institution, has reportedly approached Yandex founder Arkady Volozh regarding the potential acquisition of a controlling stake in the Russian search company. Yandex is listed on both the Moscow exchange and the NASDAQ.
The state-controlled bank would consider the acquisition of an at least 30% stake, Russian business publications Vedomosti and The Bell reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources in the bank and in government circles.
Sberbank has already been the owner of a “golden share” in Yandex since 2009, which allows the bank to veto any sale of more than 25% in Yandex. This shareholder arrangement was meant to prevent the company to be controlled by undesired investors, in particular foreign ones.
At the operational level Sberbank, which actively develops digital projects in Russia, is engaged in far-reaching cooperations with Yandex. The two companies co-own Yandex.Money, the popular online payment service initially developed by Yandex, of which the bank acquired a 75% stake in 2013.
What’s more, last year, the two companies agreed to create a joint platform aiming to dominate the Russian e-commerce market. Sberbank is committed to invest as much as $500 million in the joint venture.
The alleged discussions on a potential acquisition of Yandex shares by Sberbank came as the search company is drawing more and more attention from the Kremlin. While state pressure on the media and the Internet is mounting, such impactful information resources as Yandex.Novosti and Yandex.Zen continue to be run by Yandex independently. This appears as a challenge to authoritarian-minded government circles.
Some observers have also perceived as a negative signal for Yandex its recent controversy with Gazprom-Media, another state-controlled giant, which accused Yandex of facilitating piracy.
In this context, according to yesterday’s media reports, Sberbank’s potential acquisition of a controlling stake in Yandex could – putting aside investment strategy considerations – be a way for the authorities to get a certain level of control over the search company.
Even though Sberbank’s top management denied holding any negotiations with Yandex and its founder, the prospects of seeing Yandex fall under indirect state control triggered negative reactions within Yandex as well as across the IT and venture community, where Yandex is widely seen as one of Russia’s rare large digital success stories.
The rumor also scared investors: following yesterday’s media reports, the company’s stock price fell by up to 18% on the NASDAQ.
Update Oct. 22: In an official statement, Yandex founder and main shareholder Arkady Volozh denied any “intention to sell [his] shares in the company,” while he “[supports] the Board’s efforts to continuously evaluate the company’s capital structure to best position the company for the future.” The company added that “board deliberations may or may not lead to any proposal to change the company’s capital structure or to any potential transaction, and the company does not intend to comment further on market speculation or disclose any developments unless and until it otherwise deems further disclosure is appropriate or required.”
