Yandex, a Russia-based search engine formerly backed by Intel Capital, raised around $1.3bn in its Nasdaq flotation after pricing its shares $1 above its expected range.
The company sold more than 52 million ordinary shares at $25 each compared to a planned $22 to $24 range, for an initial market cap of about $8bn before a 55% first day pop in its share price.
Investment banks Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs co-led Yandex’s initial public offering.
Intel had committed to a fund, Ru-Net, managed by Baring Vostok Private Equity and local bank UFG, which paid $5m for a 35% stake in Yandex in 2000. However, while the other assets in Ru-Net, such as property website Ozon, were distributed to limited partners, Yandex was retained in the ongoing vehicle, Internet Search Investments.
Baring Vostok owns nearly a fifth of Yandex’s A shares and almost a quarter of its B shares to have a 23.9% total voting power ahead of the portfolio company’s initial public offering, according to the company’s regulatory filing. Each B share has 10 votes while an A share has one vote.
United Financial Group (UFG) has a 3.4% holding, excluding shares held in other vehicles, such as Kameson.
Last month, Yandex started a corporate venturing programme, Yandex.Factory, to invest up to hundreds of thousands US dollars in Russian and international projects at their seed or early investment stage.