UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 6-K

 

Report of Foreign Private Issuer

Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16 of

the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

 

For the month of September, 2020

 

YANDEX N.V.

 

Schiphol Boulevard 165

1118 BG, Schiphol, the Netherlands.

Tel: +31 202 066 970

(Address, Including ZIP Code, and Telephone Number,

Including Area Code, of Registrant’s Principal Executive Offices)

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.

 

Form 20-F x      Form 40-F o

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1): o

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7): o

 

 

 


 

Furnished as Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2 to this Report on Form 6-K are press releases of Yandex N.V. dated September 4, 2020.

 

2


 

SIGNATURES

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

 

 

YANDEX N.V.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date: September 4, 2020

By:

/s/ Greg Abovsky

 

 

Greg Abovsky

 

 

Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

 

3


 

INDEX TO EXHIBITS

 

99.1

 

Press release dated September 4, 2020

99.2

 

Press release dated September 4, 2020

 

4


Exhibit 99.1

 

YANDEX CONTRIBUTES ITS YANDEX.DRIVE CAR-SHARING BUSINESS TO YANDEX TAXI GROUP

 

Yandex’s stake in ride-hailing and foodtech JV with Uber to increase to 62%

 

Moscow and Amsterdam — September 4, 2020 — Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX) today entered into an agreement with Uber to contribute the Yandex.Drive car-sharing business from Yandex N.V. to MLU B.V. (MLU), Yandex’s ride-hailing and foodtech joint venture with Uber.

 

Following the addition of Yandex.Drive to MLU, Yandex will own 61.7% of MLU, while Uber will own 33.5% of the issued share capital of the company. The remaining shares will be reserved for MLU management and employees.

 

Yandex.Drive was developed by Yandex in February 2018. It offers on-demand access to a fleet of 16,000 cars in Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan and Sochi, making it the largest free-floating car-sharing platform in Russia and the world. Since its launch, users have completed more than 73 million rides on Yandex.Drive.

 

Yandex.Drive has benefited from tight integration into the Yandex ecosystem, as well as its ability to attract top talent and access to the world-class technologies that Yandex has been developing for over 22 years. It boasts unique proprietary technologies for dynamic pricing, speed monitoring, driving behavior analysis, remote fleet management and vehicle condition monitoring. The service provides a personalized user experience via integration with the Yandex.Auto in-car infotainment system, which integrates Yandex.Navigator, Yandex Music, and Yandex’s voice-controlled intelligent assistant Alice.

 

The contribution of Yandex.Drive to Yandex Taxi Group mobility services opens up new synergies for users and the company’s partners. For example, the integration of Yandex.Drive into the recently launched Yandex Go app expands transportation alternatives for users, and will allow the service to offer our users a wide variety of transportation modes. In terms of partners, our ride-hailing drivers  will get access to short-term car-sharing rentals that will allow them to reduce their car rental costs, while usage of car-sharing autos mean drivers will no longer need to worry about car rental deposits, cleaning, fueling or returning the car to a taxi fleet management company.

 

The Yandex.Drive team under the management of Anton Ryazanov, who founded the service within Yandex, will continue to develop the car-sharing offering as part of MLU and will report to Daniil Shuleyko, CEO of the company.

 

Following the transaction, Yandex.Drive results will be disclosed separately in the Taxi segment financials. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020.

 

For further information, please visit http://company.yandex.com or contact:

 

MLU B.V.

Investor Relations

Katya Zhukova

Phone: +7 495 974-35-38

E-mail: askIR@yandex-team.ru

 

Press Office:

Ilya Grabovskiy

 


 

Phone: +7 495 739-70-00

E-mail: pr@yandex-team.ru

 

About MLU B.V.

 

MLU was created in February 2018 when Yandex (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX) and Uber (NYSE: UBER) combined their ride-hailing and food delivery businesses across Russia and six neighboring countries. As of today, it operates Yandex.Taxi, Uber, Yango and Yandex.Go brands in 18 countries and offers ride-sharing, car-sharing and logistics services, public transport schedules, as well as food and grocery delivery services through Yandex.Eats and Yandex.Lavka brands.

 


Exhibit 99.2

 

YANDEX RESTRUCTURES SELF-DRIVING BUSINESS

 

Yandex will increase its stake in the new company (Yandex SDG) to 73% and invest an additional $150 million in its future development

 

Moscow and Amsterdam — September 4, 2020 — Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX) and Uber today entered into agreements to spin off the self-driving vehicles business, Yandex Self Driving Group B.V. (“Yandex SDG”) from their ride-hailing and foodtech joint venture, MLU B.V.. Following these transactions, Yandex SDG will be directly owned by Yandex and Uber. Yandex will continue to consolidate the results of Yandex SDG and will be reporting Yandex SDG results in the “Other Bets and Experiments” segment of Yandex N.V.

 

Simultaneously with the spin off transaction, Yandex will invest $150 million into Yandex SDG, $100 million of which will be in the form of equity and the remaining $50 million in the form of a convertible loan. Yandex will also purchase a portion of Uber’s stake in Yandex SDG.  As a result of the transactions, Yandex will own 73% of Yandex SDG, while Uber will own 19%. The remaining 8% will be reserved for Yandex SDG management and employees.

 

“We are excited to increase our stake in this strategically important part of our business,” said Arkady Volozh, Chief Executive Officer of Yandex. “In just a short period of time, we have achieved breakthrough results in autonomous driving. We firmly believe in the future of autonomous mobility as a safe and cost-effective form of transportation with a vast addressable market. The additional capital that we are investing in SDG will allow it to continue to pursue the R&D and productization of autonomous mobility.”

 

Yandex has been developing its proprietary self-driving technology since 2017. As of today, Yandex’s autonomous vehicle fleet has 130 cars, which have driven over four million autonomous miles on public roads in various weather and road conditions in three countries - Russia, Israel and the United States. The maturity of the technology as well as the accumulated real-world mileage makes Yandex one of the leading developers of self-driving technology globally.

 

Since late 2019, the company also has been developing its own delivery robot, Yandex.Rover, aimed at the autonomous delivery of small and medium-sized packages. The robot could help to automate last-mile delivery of goods within our ecosystem and beyond, as well as to offer a sustainable way to deliver food and goods.

 

Yandex’s cumulative investment in SDG to date has been approximately $65 million, including around $20 million in the first half of 2020.

 

Recently, Yandex launched Yandex.Rover commercial operations in the Russian tech hub of Skolkovo. Yandex SDG is also planning to launch its autonomous mobility services in Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA) and Tel Aviv, Israel in the near term.

 

“We’ve been developing technology that can be applied to various types of vehicles and that is suitable for different road, traffic and weather conditions around the world,” said Dmitry Polishchuk, CEO of Yandex SDG. “There is still a lot to be done to apply this technology to ride-hailing, food delivery, ecommerce, and many more adjacent categories in the longer-term. The creation of a new company, with significant support from Yandex, positions us well for the further acceleration of our development and to achieve our goal of creating a safe and efficient transportation ecosystem.”

 

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020.

 


 

For further information, please visit http://company.yandex.com or contact:

 

Yandex N.V.

Investor Relations

Yulia Gerasimova

Phone: +7 495 974-35-38

E-mail: askIR@yandex-team.ru

 

Press Office:

Ilya Grabovskiy

Phone: +7 495 739-70-00

E-mail: pr@yandex-team.ru

 

About Yandex N.V.

 

Yandex (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX) is a technology company that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning. Our goal is to help consumers and businesses better navigate the online and offline world. Since 1997, we have delivered world-class, locally relevant search and information services. Additionally, we have developed leading on-demand transportation services, navigation products, and other mobile applications for millions of consumers across the globe. Yandex, which has 34 offices worldwide, has been listed on NASDAQ since 2011.

 

More information on Yandex can be found at https://yandex.com/company