Page 134 - bneIntelliNews monthly country report Russia May 2024

Andrei Belousov, that the Ministry of Industry and Trade saw a risk of Auchan retail chains leaving Russia. The law on trade in Russia prohibits retailers from conducting mergers and acquisitions if their share within one municipality or district has already reached 25%.
However, this ban was lifted in June, following the departure of Finnish company Prisma. The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to extend these changes to 2024 so that Russian companies could buy assets of foreign chains without restrictions.
9.2.6 Agriculture corporate news
On April 8, Putin signed a decree transferring the assets of AgroTerra under state control. According to the Russian media, its owner is the Dutch AgroTerra Investments B.V holding. 100% of AgroTerra, which owns land in Kursk, Oryol, Lipetsk, Tula, Ryazan, Tambov, and Penza regions, has been transferred to the "temporary management" of the Federal Agency for State Property Management. 100% of AgroTerra's subsidiary Kapital AgroFinance, as well as AgroSistema LLC and AgroSistema-Regions LLC, were also nationalised. According to Forbes, AgroTerra was founded in 2008 by George Rohr, a US citisen with Ukrainian roots. The company had 24 farms, arable land where wheat, sugar beet, sunflower, soybean, and rapeseed were grown, as well as elevators with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes. In 2023, the group was one of the 20 largest agribusiness groups in Russia.
9.2.7 TMT corporate news
● Yandex
Yandex published results for 1Q24. Yandex N.V. revenue increased by 40% to RUB 229bn. (2% below our expectations, but 1% above consensus), and arr. EBITDA increased by 144% to RUB 31.2bn. (10% above our forecast and 16% above consensus). The company also separately disclosed the results of ICPJSC Yandex, which exclude unprofitable international assets. Revenue amounted to 228.3bn rubles. (+40% y/y), adj. EBITDA amounted to RUB 37.6bn. (profitability 16.5%), and adjusted. net profit increased by 164% to RUB 21.6bn.
Search and Portal revenue continued to show strong growth (+38%). Profitability, as expected, decreased by 4.1 percentage points. up to 47.2%. GMV of ridetech and O2O services also showed good dynamics (+43% and +65%, respectively). E-commerce GMV grew 42%, which looks weak compared to its major competitors. However, Yandex continued to focus on business economics and showed a positive corr. EBITDA of the e-commerce,
134 RUSSIA Country Report May 2024 www.intellinews.com