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incoming stocks underpin the still stretched market conditions. In 4Q21, sugar prices in Russia gained 12% y/y and 6% q/q to RUB42/kg and provide a robust outlook on Rusagro’s profitability margins.
The stock has lost 15% in the last three months and now demands 2022F EV/EBITDA of 5.5x. That, inour view, is appealing and offers rerating potential on further market consolidation, the ramp-up of the Russian Far East project, and expanding export operations.
Rusagro has announced that the Commercial Court of the Saratov region has lifted the restrictions imposed earlier on the assets of the company and on shareholders Vadim Moshkovich and Maxim Basov. Vedomosti had previously reported that the court had frozen the assets of Rusagro, of its founder Vadim Moshkovich, and of the previous CEO Maxim Basov, in the amount of RUB 21.9bn. This related to the bankruptcy proceedings of the acquired Volzhsky terminal (part of the SolPro acquisition in the vegetable oil segment) and the claim of more than RUB 200mn by Sinko Trade for supplies of sunflower seeds. The paper also stated Rusagro’s view that the decision was a mistake and the court was misled. The court measure only related to the alienation and sale of assets, and had no impact on operations, according to Rusagro. The court’s decision removes these concerns from the near-term sentiment.
9.2.7 TMT corporate news
● Yandex
Yandex announced the settlement of the antitrust case in Russia with FAS on January 19. Earlier this week, Interfax sources said that Yandex had settled with the internet services that triggered the investigation (such as Avito, Cian, ivi, etc), only lacking an agreement with FAS (Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service, which has now signed. To remind, this refers to the antitrust investigation started early 2021 regarding Yandex’s alleged cross-promotion of its own services in “enriched” search results. With the settlement, Yandex committed to ensure fair representation of third-party services in search results and to contribute Rb1.5bn to the non-profit Russia Fund for the Development of Information Technologies. The settlement does not imply any fines.
Yandex: The recent funding round of ClickHouse, which valued this company built around Yandex's technology for database management systems at $2bn, clearly indicated that Yandex's in-house technologies, which were initially developed to power the company's own product offerings, could become a source of value on their own.
Such value upside has two important dimensions: the potential i) for
117 RUSSIA Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com