Yandex sold more than 52 million ordinary shares at $25 each compared to a planned $22 to $24 range, for an initial market cap of about $8bn before a 55% first day pop in its share price.

Yandex, a Russia-based search engine formerly backed by Intel Capital, raised around $1.3bn in its Nasdaq flotation after pricing its shares $1 above its expected range.

The company sold more than 52 million ordinary shares at $25 each compared to a planned $22 to $24 range, for an initial market cap of about $8bn before a 55% first day pop in its share price.

Investment banks Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs co-led Yandex’s initial public offering.

Intel had committed to a fund, Ru-Net, managed by Baring Vostok Private Equity and local bank UFG, which paid $5m for a 35% stake in Yandex in 2000. However, while the other assets in Ru-Net, such as property website Ozon, were distributed to limited partners, Yandex was retained in the ongoing vehicle, Internet Search Investments.

Baring Vostok owns nearly a fifth of Yandex’s A shares and almost a quarter of its B shares to have a 23.9% total voting power ahead of the portfolio company’s initial public offering, according to the company’s regulatory filing. Each B share has 10 votes while an A share has one vote.

United Financial Group (UFG) has a 3.4% holding, excluding shares held in other vehicles, such as Kameson.

Last month, Yandex started a corporate venturing programme, Yandex.Factory, to invest up to hundreds of thousands US dollars in Russian and international projects at their seed or early investment stage.

James Mawson

James Mawson is founder and chief executive of Global Venturing.