Sberbank bought a 75% stake in Yandex.Money for $60 million. What will the financial institution do with this service?
Sberbank signed an agreement with Yandex to purchase 75% minus 1 ruble of the Yandex.Money company, the head said credit organization German Gref. The amount of the transaction, which will be closed in the 1st quarter of 2013, was $60 million. Under the terms of the agreement, two out of five seats on the board of directors of Yandex.Money will remain with representatives of Yandex. The usual name of the wallet will also remain.
Why did they sell Yandex.Money?
"Yandex.Money" is one of the most widespread electronic payment systems. It only works with rubles. Using the service, you can make purchases on the Internet, pay for communication services, housing and communal services, etc. Currently, more than 12 million accounts are registered in the system, and more than 120,000 transactions are carried out in Yandex.Money every day.
Having sold the service, the head of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, realized what he had long planned. A year and a half ago, he said that Yandex.Money would either buy a stake in the bank or be sold to the bank. And in the fall of 2011, large banks, including Sberbank, received official offers to buy the wallet. The company was pushed to put the asset up for sale new law, which obliged the system electronic money from the end of September 2012, work through partner credit organizations. “I roughly understand why Yandex needs this,” says ex-media director of SUP Media, popular blogger Anton Nosik. “They (“Yandex.” - Ed.) don’t like to be unprofessional.”
However, Volozh was unable to quickly find a buyer: at the beginning of 2012, a member of the board of Sberbank said that negotiations on the purchase were ongoing, but the bank had a calm interest in the system and the importance of the market was exaggerated by sellers. To prepare for the new requirements, at the beginning of summer the payment system applied for a non-bank credit organization (NPO) license and received it in September.
How adequate is the price paid by Sberbank for the service? According to the chairman of the Electronic Money Association, Viktor Dostov, in the most optimistic case, Yandex.Money could be worth up to $200 million. “It is difficult to say why the price of the transaction was lower, since some of its conditions are unknown,” explains Dostov. “We don’t know for how much and under what conditions the remaining shares will be bought back and whether there are hidden payments.”
Investkafe analyst Ilya Rachenkov has a different opinion, calling the transaction amount adequate: “This is a rapidly growing company, which is valued at high multipliers of 3-4 annual revenue.” According to Rachenkov, Yandex.Money’s revenue in 2012 will amount to more than 500 million rubles (in the first half of 2012 - 241 million rubles).
Konstantin Belov, an analyst at Uralsib, also called the transaction amount a good price for the seller. In his opinion, the buyer will have this asset grow faster. Gref is of the same opinion. Commenting on the deal, he promised a twofold increase in the value of the business due to synergy with the bank. Vice President of Sberbank Denis Bugrov clarified what is meant: “Yandex.Money has 12 million users, we have 107 million at the latest count. Almost 9 million of them actively use mobile application. Naturally, we will provide an easy opportunity for Yandex.Money users who are not yet bank clients to come to us.”
Why does Sberbank need Yandex.Money?
The electronic money market is growing dynamically. According to the Electronic Money Association, the market volume electronic wallets in 2011 reached 125 billion rubles. It has long attracted banks, although commission income from these operations is relatively small.
Co-owner of the Qiwi payment service, member of the national association of e-commerce participants, Boris Kim, considers the deal beneficial for both participants and with the arrival of Sberbank he sees increased competition in the market. “Yandex got rid of a non-core asset, and the bank saved time on developing its own platform and acquired a rather large client base,” Kim noted. “Sberbank wants to attract advanced young clients who currently use other banks,” Nosik added.
Other banks, such as Alfa-Bank and Russian Standard, have already begun to develop their own electronic money systems. Thanks to this service, users have the opportunity to make non-cash payments using a simplified scheme. The owner of the electronic wallet does not need to open a bank account; he can also remain anonymous with an account balance of up to 15,000 rubles and total amount transferred funds up to 40,000 rubles per month.
It is more convenient to pay for purchases on the Internet through an electronic wallet, and it is safer, since the user does not have to “shine” bank card. “We will provide the opportunity for payments to those who do not want or find it too difficult to use Sberbank’s own online payment system,” explains Yandex.Money head Evgenia Zavalishina. In partnership with Sberbank, it plans to develop and improve the system of payments for housing and communal services, transfers between individuals, bring to market new services in these areas and in the field of e-commerce.
Is there a political motive?
“I consider the presence of a political factor in this purchase to be very likely,” Nosik continues. — Another thing is that without knowing the structure of the transaction, it is impossible to answer a number of questions. Why did you buy Yandex.Money out of 26 payment systems existing on the market? The answer “because Alexei Navalny’s wallet is there” sounds naive. Navalny can move to Qiwi.”
According to the blogger, much will depend on whether “Yandex completely withdraws from the project or leaves behind questions related to the quality of service.” “To be completely honest, I, who have been a client of Yandex.Money from day one, will end my relationship with them,” says Nosik.
Yandex.Wallet is the most convenient way collection of money, and we hope that we will not have any difficulties,” noted RosPila lawyer Lyubov Sobol. Navalny announced a new fundraiser for RosPil on Wednesday. At the same time, the opposition is ready to switch to other payment systems at any time, says Sobol, for example, in Navalny’s post, you can also transfer money via PayPal.
Gref, when asked about his attitude towards financing the opposition through Yandex.Money, replied that he sees nothing wrong with this as long as such activity remains within the law.
13.12.2017, Wed, 13:01, Moscow time , Text: Valeria Shmyrova
Sberbank will buy new shares of Yandex.Market for 30 billion rubles, as a result of which a joint venture worth 60 billion rubles will be created. The company will retain the Yandex brand and the former general director.
Sberbank invests 30 billion rubles. in Yandex.Market
Yandex and Sberbank intend to create a joint venture based on Yandex.Market, the cost of which is estimated at 60 billion rubles. For this purpose, Sberbank will buy a package of newly issued shares of Yandex.Market worth 30 billion rubles. Having received equal shares in the joint business, the owners will form an option fund from 10% of the shares to reward the company's employees.
Yandex and Sberbank have already signed a binding agreement to create a joint venture. The new business was valued without considering future synergies. The letter of intent was signed in August 2017. Completion of the transaction is scheduled for the first half of 2018 - after regulatory approval is received.
New "Yandex.Market"
After completion of the transaction, Yandex.Market will focus on online retail trade, and Yandex and Sberbank in Russia, Georgia, the CIS and Baltic countries will carry out online trading only through this platform. The enterprise will operate under the Yandex brand and based on its technologies, advertising and information support Both Yandex and Sberbank will be involved.
General Director of Yandex.Market Maxim Grishakov will remain in his post. In addition, he will receive a seat on the board of directors of the company, along with three representatives from Yandex and three from Sberbank.
According to Yandex.Market itself, its turnover in the first nine months of 2017 reached 100 billion rubles. The service's monthly traffic exceeds 20 million users. The platform hosts more than 150 million product offerings from 20 thousand Russian and foreign online stores.
Yandex joint ventures
Yandex.Market is not the only case where Yandex enters into a large joint venture. For example, in July 2017, Yandex agreed to merge the Yandex.Taxi service with Uber. The partnership will work in Russia, as well as in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan. The combined company will be headed by the CEO of Yandex.Taxi Tigran Khudaverdyan.
Uber will invest $225 million in the joint company, Yandex - $100 million. Control in the new structure will belong to Yandex - it will have 59.3%. Uber will own 36.6% of the shares. Another 4.1% will belong to the company's employees. After the deal is closed, both applications for ordering rides - Yandex.Taxi and Uber - will continue to be available to users, but taxi companies and drivers will switch to a single technology platform.
Sberbank acquired the online service "Yandex. Money" for $65 million. The bank will own 75% minus one share. Yandex still has a blocking stake - 25% plus one ruble.
Sberbank will invest $60 million in the service online payments Yandex money. As a result, the bank will own 75% minus one share. The agreement was signed on Wednesday.
As the head of the bank, German Gref, told reporters, Yandex is considered one of the most successful Russian IT companies. “We are carefully looking at the development of Yandex and trying to help it develop its products,” Gref said.
An agreement to sell the online service was signed on Wednesday, while Yandex will continue to own a blocking stake in Yandex.Money. The parties intend to finally close the deal in the first quarter of 2013. The companies' joint press release states that the deadline for closing the deal depends on the completion of normal procedures, including obtaining regulatory approvals.
The management of the Yandex.Money service will continue to be carried out by Evgenia Zavalishina. And the board of directors will include three representatives of Sberbank: Denis Bugrov, Viktor Orlovsky and Alexander Torbakhov. And also two representatives of Yandex: Arkady Volozh and Evgenia Zavalishina.
"Technical specialists" Yandex. Money" and Sberbank have already begun preparations for the implementation of joint projects. New products will be produced under the brand and based on the technologies of "Yandex. Money". After the transaction is closed, users of money.yandex.ru will remain clients of the non-bank credit organization "Yandex. Money" operating on the basis of a license from the Bank of Russia," the statement says.
Back in September, the legislative framework under which the Yandex.Money service operated changed. Law "On National payment system" obligated online payment services to have banking license or have the status of a non-bank financial organization.
Today, the Yandex.Money service is used by over 2 million clients. At the end of 2011, the revenue of the Yandex.Money project amounted to 383 million rubles. In the first half of this year, the company received 241 million rubles.
"Yandex. Money" is the largest Russian system online payments. According to TNS estimates, 15% of the population of large cities of the Russian Federation (with a population of more than 800 thousand people) paid for any purchases or services through Yandex.Money. While the Qiwi Wallet and WebMoney services were used by 10% of the audience each.
The situation with the possible purchase of the Yandex Internet holding by the Russian Sberbank, despite all the inconsistency of incoming information, is moving towards a natural conclusion: a landmark transaction may happen in the very near future.
This conclusion can be reached by analyzing the dynamics of the situation. Apparently, Sberbank is not the only contender for control over Yandex: the Russian authorities are serious about ensuring the “guardianship” of the leading Internet holding of the Russian segment of the World Wide Web in one way or another.
A long overdue decision
Until recently, the formal independence of Yandex from the Russian authorities was an amazing paradox. The largest Russian Internet search engine, and in Lately and an Internet holding company, which includes a wide range of various services: from the well-known Yandex.Taxi, the online marketplace Yandex.Market and the Yandex.Maps navigator to such technological business applications as Yandex.Cloud , experienced virtually no influence from the Russian authorities.
Such a liberal approach to the existence of an independent national search engine - and Yandex and its applications carry even more weight in Russia than the market share of the international conglomerate Google - contrasted sharply with the situation in other countries that have their own national network integration platforms.
For example, the Chinese search engine Baidu quite routinely participated in the “Golden Shield” and “Great Firewall of China” projects, which were created by the PRC authorities and today are widely used within the Chinese segment of the Internet for selective filtering and censorship of network content.
Nevertheless, Yandex, realizing that Russia is the main market for its search engine and related services (in our country, Yandex’s share is 45% of all requests, while in the world its share is much more modest - only about 0.8%), made concerted efforts to protect its key market.
In particular, back in 2009, Sberbank received a “golden share” of this Internet company, which gave the right state bank veto the sale of more than 25% of Yandex shares. This was done to protect against the possible transfer of the company to the control of foreigners after the IPO of Yandex on the American high-tech exchange Nasdaq.
In 2012, Sberbank deepened its cooperation with Yandex by purchasing a 75% stake in Yandex.Money from the company for $60 million. The company was prompted to sell the Yandex.Money service by changes in Russian legislation, namely the law “On the National Payment System”. The latter obliged all electronic money systems to operate either in the status of a non-bank credit organization, which significantly limits the range of possible operations, or with a partner bank.
Further cooperation largest bank Russia and the largest Internet corporation have only become stronger: for example, in 2014, the chairman of the board of Sberbank German Gref officially joined the board of directors of Yandex.
Another project between Sberbank and Yandex started in 2018: the Yandex.Market division and the bank announced the creation of a joint online marketplace Beru. On this occasion, Gref said that Beru in the future should become the “Russian Amazon” and bring online commerce in Russia to a qualitatively new level.
The inevitable flight of investors
However, it is not Sberbank that has control over the shares of its Internet partner. Currently, the largest portfolio investors of Yandex N.V., trading on the Nasdaq exchange, are American and European investment funds and companies.