Yandex forecasts first-quarter sales to slow on Russian economy
By Bloomberg
Yandex NV, Russia’s largest search engine, forecast sales growth will slow to 15 percent this quarter amid a challenging economy.
Revenue rose 29 percent last year to 50.8 billion rubles, or $902 million based on exchange rates provided by the company, Moscow-based Yandex said in a statement Wednesday. Sales growth was 21 percent in the fourth quarter as Internet advertising slowed down.
Chief Executive Officer Arkady Volozh cited “challenging economic headwinds, including substantial currency fluctuations” as the company said it couldn’t give a full-year forecast.
Yandex, which has double the market share of Google Inc. in Russia, is expanding into businesses such as online-taxi services, classifieds and big-data processing to diversify. The company complained to local antitrust regulators today after losing the status of default search engine on several Google Android-based smartphone brands last year.
The stock rose 5.4 percent as of 3:11 p.m. in Moscow.
“Sales and profitability have come slightly above the market’s expectation,” said Sergey Libin, an analyst at ZAO Raiffeisenbank. “The fact that Yandex is seeking Russian antitrust service’s support in fighting Google also adds positive sentiment to the stock.”
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