Page 142 - RusRPTMar21

2020 against a RUB2.794bn net loss in 2019, as calculated under IFRS, the company said in a statement on February 24 as cited by Prime. Revenue rose 6.7% to RUB445.544bn. EBITDA grew 13.7% to RUB44.919bn. Gross profit rose 10.6% to RUB101.816bn, and operating profit more than tripled to RUB29.286bn. The company’s total debt decreased 37.9% in 2020 to RUB113.394bn as of December 31, while net debt fell 16.2% to RUB91.585bn.
9.2.7 TMT corporate news
Yandex: yet another upgrade. Sberbank reiterate a BUY rating on Yandex while raising our ruble-denominated target price by 17% to R5,958 per share, or $80.52 per US-listed share.
E-commerce ambitions. Yandex reported that its e-commerce GMV tripled last year to R56bn (out of that we estimate the marketplace GMV increased 2.3-fold to R42bn versus 2.4-fold growth for Ozon to R195bn and a doubling for Wildberries to R437bn). On top of that its price comparison platform saw GMV sales of R230bn. Yandex voiced aggressive plans to invest $400-500mn in its e-commerce segments in 2021, with the ambitions of becoming a top-three player. The company thinks it has a good base for this, with 25k merchants on the Yandex.Market price comparison platform, 8mn Yandex.Plus subscribers, 30mn transacting customers and 20mn customers in Yandex.Lavka's coverage area.
Valuation. A repricing of Yandex.Market following the IPO of Ozon contributed about a quarter of the increase to our dollar target price. A change in our FX assumption (from $/RUB77 to 74) and update of our Yandex.Taxi JV model each contributed another 20%, while the rest (around 36%) came from our updated outlook for the search and portal, media and classifieds verticals. Yandex shares are trading at a 27.6 2021E EV/EBITDA (17 for 2022E) and 47 2021E P/E (27 for 2022E). On our estimates, excluding the Yandex.Taxi JV and Yandex.Market the shares are trading at a 17 2021E EV/EBITDA, while excluding just Yandex.Market (8.5% of the target price, shaves 18% from adjusted EBITDA in 2021E) they are trading at a 21 2021E EV/EBITDA.
Catalysts. We believe that a deal to buy Uber out of the Yandex.Taxi JV is imminent and see it as a potential catalyst. We believe that Yandex's recent statement regarding its e-commerce plans, which suggest tight integration between Yandex.Market, Yandex.Eats, Yandex.Lavka and the logistics vertical (the last three are part of the Yandex.Taxi JV), indicates that the deal might happen sooner rather than later. Other possible catalysts include details on an upcoming fintech offering; crystallization of value in the self-driving group,
142 RUSSIA Country Report March 2021 www.intellinews.com