Sberbank Rossii : Yandex Enters into Binding Agreement with Sberbank for Yandex.Market Joint Venture

December 13, 2017, Moscow- Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX) today announced that it has entered into a binding agreement with Sberbank of Russia to form a joint venture based on the Yandex.Market platform. The parties previously announced their intention to pursue the transaction on August 9, 2017.

Pursuant to the definitive agreement, Sberbank will subscribe for new shares in Yandex.Market for 30 billion rubles (approximately $500 million), valuing it at 60 billion rubles (approximately $1B) on a post-money basis, before taking into account any potential future synergies. The two partners will own equal stakes in the company, with ten percent of the company's shares to be issued to an equity incentive foundation and allocated for future grants of equity awards to management and employees of Yandex.Market.

Yandex.Market will engage in e-commerce, with a core focus on creating a B2C online retail marketplace. In the Russian Federation, other CIS states, the Baltic states and Georgia, Yandex and Sberbank will engage in the core business solely through Yandex.Market.

Yandex.Market will continue to operate under the current management team led by Maxim Grishakov, its Chief Executive Officer. He will join the board of directors of Yandex.Market, which will also include three other representatives from Yandex and three representatives from Sberbank.

Yandex will continue to provide technology and branding, while both Yandex and Sberbank will provide promotion support to the joint venture. Both parties will utilize strength of their respective core businesses to boost growth of Yandex.Market going forward.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the first half of 2018.