Originally created over 20 years ago by two Russian entrepreneurs, Yandex now operates Russia's leading online search engine with a dominant 65% share of the country's search traffic. Often called the "Google of Russia," Yandex uses proprietary search algorithms to retrieve, aggregate and organic online content on its yandex.ru website.
Yandex has filed to raise $1.1 billion in its IPO by offering 52 million shares (70% insider) at a price range of $20 to $22, though sources report Yandex is now proposing a range of $24 to $25 due to strong deal demand. Assuming a share price of $25, Yandex would be valued at $8.4 billion and raise $1.3 billion in gross proceeds, making it the fourth largest IPO year-to-date (after HCA (HCA), Kinder Morgan (KMI) and Nielsen (NLSN)). The company intends to price on Monday after the market close and list on the NASDAQ on Tuesday under the ticker symbol YNDX. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are the lead managers on the deal, which is one of eight scheduled to price on this week's US IPO calendar.
Read more about why Yandex is more than just "Yet Another Indexer".
