PRESS: Yandex said willing to sell minor stake in e-hailing business

MOSCOW, Apr 26 (PRIME) -- Russian Internet giant Yandex has hired J.P. Morgan to raise U.S. $150–200 million for its online taxi hailing service Yandex.Taxi, in which it could sell 12.5–16.7%, business daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday, quoting sources.

Consultations were held with European and Asian investors, primarily with those who have already contributed money to e-hailing services, such as Softbank Capital and Tiger Global, a source said.

“In Russia, the number of investors capable of writing such a check is rather small. These are, for example, Baring Vostok, the Russian Direct Investment Fund,” the source said, adding that potential investment was discussed with Sberbank, although the country’s biggest bank allocated $100 million in 2016 to its archrival Gett.

Another source said that after Gett had received $300 million from Volkswagen, Yandex.Taxi was also interested in drawing investments from car makers, like Hyundai Motor.

Launched in 2011, Yandex.Taxi provides services in 46 cities in Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. It partners with over 70,000 cars. According to UBS’s March report, the company holds 55% of the Russian e-hailing market.

Yandex.Taxi’s revenue more than doubled in 2016 to 2.3 billion rubles, and the company is valued at $1.2 billion, UBS said. InVenture Partners’ managing partner Anton Inshutin valued the company at $500–600 million.

Renaissance Capital said the company is loss-making for Yandex – costs reached 1.3 billion rubles in October–December 2016. Yandex will have to spend over $180 million on Yandex.Taxi in 2016–2018, but it will have EBITDA of $100 million per year from 2021.

(55.8453 rubles – U.S. $1)

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