Baring Vostok sells another 0.7% of Yandex as part of gradual exit from company
MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - Baring Vostok Capital Partners, one of the oldest investors in Yandex , is continuing to implement its program for gradually exiting the company's capital.
As at December 31, 2014, Baring's structures owned 4.68% of Yandex's capital, the voting share package amounted to 14.3%, the internet company said in a statement.
On October 14 of last year, Baring's stake in the capital of Yandex was 5.4%, the voting package was 16.4%. So during October 14-December 31, Baring sold a 0.7% stake. When Baring concluded an agreement with Morgan Stanley on the sale of shares of Yandex (June 16, 2014), the fund owned a 6.4% stake and 18.6% voting share package in the internet company.
For five and a half of the eleven months for which the program is calculated, Baring sold only a fourth of package intended for sale. A possible reason for the slow sale of shares is their falling value. Yandex's quotations from the start of July until the end of September of last year fell by 15%, and for the next two months by November 26, by another 12%.The reduction in Yandex's capitalization fell steeply amid the devaluation of the ruble and negative forecasts for the internet advertising market for 2015. By January 30, 2015, Yandex shares reached a historic low - $14.89.
According to the results of trading on Nasdaq on Thursday the cost of the package sold after October 14 amounted to about $40 million (Yandex's shares closed at $16.41). However when Baring's firms sold the shares between October 14 and December 31 of last year, their average price was $23.75, which corresponds to $57.5 million for the package.
As at December 31, Baring Vostok owned 14,894,401 shares, including 13,297,636 class B shares, with 10 votes each. These shares are not traded on the stock exchange and with their sale are automatically converted into class A shares, which have one vote. There are 248,818,138 class A shares and 69,497,411 class B shares in Yandex's charter capital.
Baring Vostok and Morgan Stanley signed an agreement on the sale of almost all of a share package that belonged to the investment fund on June 16, up to 19,989,591 shares of 20,263,404. Morgan Stanley has been selling shares on the exchange since June 17, 2014. The sale should be completed by June 5, 2015.
For the eight months that have passed since the conclusion of the agreement between Baring and Morgan Stanley, the exchange value of the package, which may be sold has more than halved, to $328 million from $679 million.
If Baring sells all shares that are planned to be sold, then Yandex's free float will increase from 70% to more than 76%.