(Reuters) – Internet company Yandex on Friday said it was making changes to its financial team in preparation for a potential corporate restructuring that should see it divest ownership and control of core, Russia-based businesses.
Sources told Reuters last month that shareholders in Yandex’s holding company, many of whom are Western investment funds, could be in line to make $7 billion from a full divestment of its Russian businesses.
Svetlana Demyashkevich, CFO of Yandex’s Dutch-registered holding company, Yandex NV will transition to the role of Senior Vice President of Finance, Yandex said.
“In this capacity (Demyashkevich) will advise the board on financial matters and report directly to the Chairman John Boynton,” Yandex said in a statement.
Alexander Balakhnin, head of Strategy of Yandex’s e-commerce, mobility and delivery business, would be appointed as the group’s new CFO.
Yandex said the changes were effective from Aug. 1.
Yandex NV hopes to sell the main revenue-generating businesses inside Russia and develop four newer units, self-driving technologies, cloud computing, data labelling and educational technology independently, internationally.
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow, Editing by Louise Heavens)
