Page 15 - bne_Tech_06_2018

ICO & Deals
June 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 15
Gett taxi service raised another $80mn in Russia
Online taxi booking service Gett said it raised another $80mn for operations in Russia from Access Indus- tries of Leonid Blavatnik, Baring Vostok, MCI, and Volkswagen Group among the investors. The com- pany said on June 7 the service is valued at $1.4bn.
Previously at the end of 2016 Gett raised $100mn in venture financing from Russia's largest bank Sberbank to start the expansion in Russian cities with a population of more than 1mn.
The taxi booking market in Russia has since then became highly competitive, with Yandex internet major announcing a mega-merger with Uber, and Mail.ru jointly with MegaFon mobile operator also entering the race.
In November 2016, Gett (formerly Get Taxi, a global Israeli start-up) launched operations in 29 new Russian cities, adding to 30 existing ones.
Russia's internet major Yandex starts share buyback
Russia's internet services major Yandex approved a $100mn share buyback programme, the company said on June 11 as cited by Interfax.
"Share buyback is one of the standard instruments to be used to support current option programme of the company," Yandex commented on the 12-month programme. The shares of Yandex in Moscow rose by 2% upon the announcement, with capitalisation of RUB641bn ($10.2bn).
In February Yandex topped the ranking of Forbes annual list of most valuable Russian technol- ogy companies. The Russian language version of the magazine estimated the company’s worth at $12.38bn, ahead of the $11.2bn it was valued at when it floated in London in 2012.
The company finished its first buyback in 2013, buying $269mn worth of shares off the market after a 2011 listing on NASDAQ.
"Good news all around," BSC Global Markets com- mented on June 12, seeing the news as "returning to a repurchase approach which Yandex used in 2013-2014 to return cash to shareholders and off- set dilution from share awards to employees." BCS reiterates the Buy call on Yandex shares with a $42 target price.
BCS reminds that back in October 2014, MSCI index launched a consultation where they asked clients if MSCI should add Yandex to the MSCI Rus- sia Index as the benchmark provider was looking at large companies whose local listings were illiquid but had a liquid non-local listing.
"In the end, MSCI decided to put on ice adding Yandex although they had approved the change, due to "concerns on capital controls" by Russia. Since MSCI did their consultation, Yandex's market capitalization has grown 52%, a major loss to those benchmarked to MSCI Russia," according to BCS.