Friday, June 3

Search engine Yandex to 55 percent on debut

By Clare Baldwin and Megan Davies

NEW YORK (Reuters) - shares of Yandex NV, known as "Russia's Google," rose by 55 percent in their trading debut, evidence for some investors, that Internet companies have strong prospects and a confirmation for others got the market before himself.


Demand for Yandex was strong-a source said that investors wanted, 17 times as many as Yandex to buy shares and the owner made available. There are however some investor concerns that IPO are reviews for Internet companies higher than justify their earnings prospects.


Moreover, it might a rush of less able, companies that fall on the same kind of investor demand, causing the dot com boom operated in the late 1990s.


Shares of Yandex, the largest Internet IPO Google Inc almost seven years ago the United States rose by 55 percent to $38.84 at close of trading on the NASDAQ.


"Google is a great company, but we are better," co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Ilya Segalovich, 46 of told of Reuters after the debut of the company, with a smile. "We are very focused on doing what we do and the focus is technology and are looking for."


The IPO comes a week after social networking specialist company LinkedIn stock exchange went. More than the share price of the company on its first day of trade doubled investors.


There is also such as Wall Street speculated if social networks Facebook and Twitter will go public. Yandex IPO provided more evidence that Internet companies are again sharp.


"I think sure that investors have put caution on the back burner," said IPOfinancial.com President David Menlow. "There is an idea that we are in a new bull market in the context of technology stocks" is added that it is a strong appetite for social networking companies.


"Yes I believe that we mentality are in the direction of a bubble in this sector," Menlow said. But he added that investors "something would be more demanding with what they their money behind set and has not any technology, this kind of reception will receive the files."


Yandex $1.3 billion raised in your initial public offering, sale of 52.2 million shares for $25. It estimated the company about $8 billion. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman Sachs & co led the consortium banks on the offer.


"To date, Yandex has good growth, and I think that they will in the future," said IPOdesktop.com President Francis Gaskins. "Investors are hungry for growth everywhere where they can get it, either Russia or elsewhere."


Trip Chowdhry, analyst at global equities research, said however that he thinks Yandex's foundations strong are but, that the review is not.


"It is very clearly the investors about which names are crazy because they think that it is a new Google." This is wrong thinking. Yandex will be not global. They nothing shown have not, which convinced me, that they have a range of Russian geographical boundaries, "Chowdhry said."


Yandex has not decided how to use the money in the IPO, but it is important, large cash balances, as well as the company's rival, Segalovich said. "All of our competitors have piles of cash-huge pile - and we must be prepared, for (all) kinds of things,", said Segalovich.


Yandex's business model is powered by online advertising. In the year 2010 earnings increased by 90 percent to 3.8 billion rubles ($ 134 million) on sales which rose by 43 percent to 12.5 billion roubles ($ 441,3 million).


Analysts say that the search engine of Segalovich and co-founder Arkady Volozh, 47, Google, developed a competitive advantage over has because it is better equipped to handle the grammatical complexity of the Russian language.


For the company to grow it must defend now its market share 22 percent in the Russian search, 65 percent against Google.


GOLDEN SHARE


The investment is a boom for Yandex's private-equity investors. Baring Vostok Capital Partners in Yandex in 2000, when it generated revenue of only $72,000 and lost US$ 2 million bought.


The original fund investment Yandex estimated at $15 million, which means that the float - the company to more than this level values 500 times.


Investors buying in Yandex's IPO will receive class A shares, the only one-tenth of the voting power shares of class B, the insiders in the business are preserved.


Also a golden shares owned Sberbank, the State-controlled Russian Bank, could be used to make sure that each individual investors buy votes on the Yandex of more than 25 percent.


Contribute Segalovich and Volozh that when students met, said the IPO would Russia on the map as the birthplace of a global technology company.


"Russia is famous for its resources" Volozh said in an interview. "Russia has also a lot of talent..." So far, there are not many technology companies... that would work for the whole world. "We believe that the scientific culture of Russia so strongly that sooner or later as a company is displayed."


He said Segalovich, and celebrate Volozh IPO would meet investor flight back to Russia from New York to a punishment of two and a half weeks.


"(We've_been) session investors... to explain what Yandex (is)... it's real is or not, it's fake?," said Segalovich. "No, it is not wrong, there are real people..." "You can touch."


(Additional Alina Selyukh and Jennifer Saba;) (Editing by Robert MacMillan, Derek Caney and Steve Orlofsky)


Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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