PRESS: Yandex said thinking of handing over control to mgmt

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (PRIME) -- Internet company Yandex could follow Mail.Ru Group’s suit and hand over 60% of voting rights to a fund that will be controlled by the company’s founder Arkady Volozh and 10–12 top managers with Russian citizenship, business daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday, quoting a source close to Yandex’s management.

Yandex could issue new Class B shares and 80% of them would be given to Volozh, or if he resigns, to the fund. Volozh would not be authorized to alienate them, the source said.

At present, the shareholder capital of Yandex’s parent company, the Dutch firm Yandex N.V., is split into shares of Class A and Class B. As of February 15, Volozh owned 397,000 Class B shares and 33.5 million Class A shares, accounting for 49.23% of votes and 10.35% of capital.

Vladimir Ivanov owns 6.23% of votes and 3.83% of capital. The company’s co-founders and first employees jointly own 57% of votes.

According to the project, shares of Class B would have only voting rights but no economic rights, and 100% of economic interest in Yandex would belong to the owners of Class A shares with 40% of votes. All Class B shares would be converted into Class A shares, which would enable Volozh to keep 10% of economic interest in the company, the source said.

The reorganization would require an approval of holders of 75% of issued shares of Class A and the owner of the golden share, state-controlled Sberbank.

Media earlier reported of a possible acquisition of some 30% of Yandex by Sberbank, which strongly discouraged investors and pummeled the Internet company’s quotes, but all talks were officially denied.

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