The first 'Dutch' company that could become a victim of the Russia crisis has presented itself, according to Het Parool. Web giant Yandex NV, located in the WTC at Schiphol, is in serious trouble, notes Passenger Transport Magazine, now that trading in the shares has been halted. This threatens the survival of Russia's largest search engine, web store, meal delivery company and Uber clone.
Yandex ('yet another index'), which is a year older than Google, is a true web pioneer. It is not only the most used search engine in Russia; with about 90 other activities, Yandex is the Russian internet. Russians do everything through Yandex. After a night out they take the Yandextaxi (from Yandex BV), which is dominant in the Russian federation. In 2020, the company with 18.000 employees turned over $3 billion and lost nearly $96 million due to corona.
Yandex NV is managed from Moscow, but the headquarters of the company has been in the WTC at Schiphol since June 2004, now with 15 subsidiaries, including Uberkloon Yandex BV. This is mainly due to the favorable Dutch tax regime, which Uber also uses: as a 'Dutch' company, the group had to pay less tax on interest and dividend income in Russia for a long time. But this tax trick has now lost its luster, because since January 1, Russia has withdrawn from the tax treaty with the Netherlands. Also, Yandex needs a new accountant. KPMG stopped in Russia this week.
At first glance, the Ukraine war does not seem to have any consequences for the internet giant. After all, Yandex and major shareholder Arkady Volozh are not on any Western sanctions list. However, the American stock exchanges stopped trading in all funds with a Russian touch a week ago. Yandex has been listed on the Nasdaq since 2011. In the days before that, the stock had lost almost 60 percent in value. Yandex as a whole had a market value of more than $31 billion in November, but that has now shrunk to 6,8 billion.
collateral
The problem is that the stock exchange listing is a kind of collateral for bond loans that keep the company afloat. Under the terms and conditions, the loans, including approximately 12,5 million from ABN Amro, can be claimed if stock trading is halted for more than five trading days. That moment was reached on Monday evening. The company does not have the money to offset the $1,25 billion involved in the bonds.
Even if that bump is taken, Yandex is not out of the woods yet. For example, the supply in Yandex's virtual shopping center is drying up now that Western consumer goods cannot be delivered. So are critical internet equipment to keep Yandex's systems going. The company says it will last no more than 12 to 18 months with current technology.
joint ventures
Joint ventures with western companies are also being dismantled. For example, Grubhub, the American subsidiary of Thuisbezorgd mother Takeaway, is pulling the plug on a deal for the delivery of meal delivery robots. Uber, which lost its competition to Yandex, has long been in the process of selling its third-party stake in Yandex's taxi service. Lithuania has asked Google and Apple to remove the app from Yandex.Taxi.
Most imminent is the Russian government's threat to nationalize foreign assets of Western companies. As a Dutch NV, Yandex is emphatically in the crosshairs of a government that is already looking critically at the power of internet companies.
Also read: Russian tech company Yandex continues without Uber