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Mail.ru Targeted At Outpacing Yandex
Mail.ru that is arranging the IPO on London Stock Exchange hopes to outpace Yandex that is getting ready for the NASDAQ IPO, RIA Novosti reported with reference to Vedomosti newspaper.
According to the sources, the aim of being ahead of Yandex was set by the Mail.ru holders. Yandex, which worth is preliminary estimated at $5 billion, is getting ready to make IPO on NASDAQ this fall.
IPO is one of the development scenarios but the official decision hasn’t been made yet, Mail.ru Marketing Director Anna Artamonova told Vedomosti. The sources, however, insist that the talks are underway, including with Goldman Sachs.
“Should Mail.ru and Yandex made their IPOs, it would be to the benefit of all Internet market. The participants will have to play under common rules and investors will be able to evaluate real indicators of the companies,” said Rambler PR Director Alexander Kovalev.
The sole public company of Runet, Rambler Media grew 12.1 percent on LSE yesterday.
According to a manager of a big media holding, the purpose of Mail.ru holders could be getting the assessment for the company’s business to launch it on the stock exchange or sell to a strategic investor. None of Mail.ru holders is planning the withdrawal, another source said.
South African Naspers paid $165 million for 30 percent in Mail.ru in January of 2007, estimating its total worth at $550 million. Naspers bough additional 2.6 percent in November, but the price of that stake was calculated in view of $1-billion worth of Mail.ru. Mail.ru hasn’t released the accounting reports since 2005.
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