Sberbank: Sberbank has decided to accept Yandex's offer regarding sale of Yandex.Market stake and will consolidate 100% of shares in Yandex.Money

Sberbank (SBER) 
Sberbank: Sberbank has decided to accept Yandex's offer regarding sale of 
Yandex.Market stake and will consolidate 100% of shares in Yandex.Money 
 
24-Jun-2020 / 00:22 MSK 
Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information 
according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR), transmitted by EQS Group. 
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. 
 
*Sberbank has decided to accept Yandex's offer regarding sale of 
Yandex.Market stake and will consolidate 100% of shares in Yandex.Money* 
 
_June 23, 2020, Moscow_ - In a move to develop its ecosystem further 
Sberbank has decided to sell Yandex a 45% stake in Yandex.Market B.V., which 
operates in Russia under the following brands: Yandex.Market, Beru, 
Superchek and others. 
 
The value of the transaction is RUB42 bn. The aggregate profit of the deal 
for Sberbank is expected to reach around RUB20 bn, with the final figure to 
be determined at the closing of the transaction. 
 
On top of that, Sberbank is buying Yandex's shareholding stake (25% + RUB1) 
in Yandex.Money and will rebrand the latter until the end of 2020. 
 
Sberbank is acquiring Yandex.Money's entire stake for a consideration of 
approximately RUB2.4 bn at a substantial discount to the market value as the 
deal will be closed at the price according to the shareholder agreement 
Sberbank and Yandex signed in 2013. The final price will depend on the US 
dollar exchange rate ahead of the deal's closing and its date. 
 
Once the deal gets closed, Sberbank will have 100% ownership in 
Yandex.Money. 
 
All Yandex.Money services will keep operating in ordinary course of 
business. 
 
Yandex.Money is a leading e-payments service in Russia. Holding a leading 
position across B2B and B2C segments, its e-wallet is utilized by 53% online 
users in Russia (Mediascope, 2019), while Yandex.Checkout is used by 38% of 
Russian websites (MARC, 2019). 
 
Yandex.Money's business enjoyed a several-fold increase after Sberbank 
acquired its controlling interest. In 2019, the company's turnover soared 13 
times to reach RUB502.7 bn, while its EBITDA saw a 16-fold increase to rise 
to RUB2.9 bn. The company's net profit in 2019 stood at RUB1.9 bn and its 
net assets were worth RUB6.9 bn as of December 31, 2019. The company's own 
funds in its accounts exceeded RUB6 bn. 
 
_Lev Khasis, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank:_ 
 
"We welcome the signing of agreements with Yandex. We informed the market 
participants about a possible reorganization of the businesses run jointly 
with Yandex during the annual meeting with investors back in 2019. As 
competition between the Sberbank and Yandex ecosystems was getting stronger, 
we were looking for a way out that would be mutually acceptable, and we have 
succeeded in finding a balanced solution together with Yandex's top 
executives. We plan on staying partners with Yandex across multiple areas 
covered by our commercial agreements." 
 
The parties have signed legally binding agreement covering the deal that is 
expected to be closed in 3Q20 once all regulatory approvals are obtained. 
 
Herman Gref remains a member of the Yandex Board of Directors until Yandex 
holds its shareholder meeting where a new Yandex BoD will be elected. 
However, he does not intend to be part of Yandex's governance board in the 
future. 
 
_Lev Khasis, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank:_ 
 
"We are grateful to our fellow partners from Yandex for the joint work and 
pro-active introduction of the best practices of our companies. Together, we 
were able to create the Beru marketplace in a short time from scratch and 
ensure its rapid development in the highly competitive Russian e-commerce 
market. The daily audience of Beru now exceeds one million people and its 
monthly turnover is already nearing RUB4 bn. Building an ecosystem is a live 
process and this transaction opens up completely new opportunities in the 
development of e-commerce for us, while also removing some restrictions 
arising from our previous agreements with Yandex." 
 
# # # 
 
*Sberbank* 
Elena Egorova 
Press office 
Tel.: [phone] 
[e-mail] 
 
*Sberbank* is Russia's largest bank and a leading global financial 
institution. Sberbank holds almost one-third of aggregate Russian banking 
sector assets, it is the key lender to the national economy and the biggest 
deposit taker in Russia. The Government of the Russian Federation 
represented by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation is the 
principal shareholder of Sberbank owning 50% plus one voting share of the 
bank's authorized capital, with the remaining 50% minus one share held by 
domestic and international investors. Sberbank has customers in 18 
countries. Sberbank has the largest distribution network in Russia with 
about 14,000 branches, while its international operations - subsidiary 
banks, branches, and chapters - include the UK, US, CIS, Central and Eastern 
Europe, India, China, and other countries. 
The bank holds general banking license No. 1481 issued by the Bank of 
Russia. 
Official websites of the Bank: www.sberbank.com [1] (Sberbank Group 
website), www.sberbank.ru [2]. 
 
ISIN:          US80585Y3080, RU0009029540, RU0009029557, US80585Y4070 
Category Code: ACQ 
TIDM:          SBER 
LEI Code:      549300WE6TAF5EEWQS81 
Sequence No.:  71545 
EQS News ID:   1077267 
 
End of Announcement EQS News Service 
 
 
1: https://eqs-cockpit.com/cgi-bin/fncls.ssp?fn=redirect&url=f3404b78992d31b00b8d7a87b51a05ec&application_id=1077267&site_id=vwd&application_name=news 
2: https://eqs-cockpit.com/cgi-bin/fncls.ssp?fn=redirect&url=378682496d93ad736271d8948eaf036a&application_id=1077267&site_id=vwd&application_name=news 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 23, 2020 17:22 ET (21:22 GMT)