Business Day

Russia’s Yandex posts huge revenue jump

- Gleb Stolyarov and Alexander Marrow

Russian search engine Yandex on Thursday reported a 53% jump in full-year revenue to 800.1-billion roubles ($8.72bn), driven by organic growth across the business, from search and advertisin­g to ride-hailing.

Yandex ’ s Nasdaq-listed and Dutch-registered parent, Yandex NV, last week agreed to spin off some assets in a cash and shares deal worth $5.2bn, a far cry from the company’s value before Moscow sent its army into Ukraine in February 2022.

In a world where Western firms have left Russia in droves, sometimes for a nominal fee, and Moscow has unilateral­ly seized foreign-owned assets, there is a sense of relief, if not triumph after 18 months of tense negotiatio­ns, according to nine people familiar with the negotiatio­n process Reuters spoke to.

Yandex said the deal had won unanimous board approval.

Yandex has gradually obtained greater market share of Russia’s online search and advertisin­g space, a process hastened after Alphabet’s Google stopped selling online advertisin­g in Russia in March 2022. Yandex’s overall search market share averaged 63.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its own estimates. Revenue grew across the board. Accelerate­d hiring in Yandex’s search, cloud and entertainm­ent businesses drove a 26% year-onyear jump in employee numbers to 26,361 in 2023, it said.

Adjusted net income increased 155% to 27.4-billion roubles, but a 6.3-billion rouble impairment of intangible assets and investment­s in business expansion led to a net loss of 6.3-billion roubles in the fourth quarter, Yandex said. /

 ?? Reuters/File ?? Market share growth: Russian technology giant Yandex, whose headquarte­rs are in Moscow, has been boosted by a 53% jump in revenue. /
Reuters/File Market share growth: Russian technology giant Yandex, whose headquarte­rs are in Moscow, has been boosted by a 53% jump in revenue. /

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