The Invesco Fund has collected 5% of the shares of Yandex
The American Fund Invesco collected 5% of the shares of Yandex. It was posted on the website of the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The market value of this package is $744 million.
How US funds buy up Yandex shares
In the beginning of 2019 the US funds were actively buying shares of Yandex. The Harding Loever Fund became the owner of 4.7% of the Internet company's shares, the Wellington Management Group Fund -4.5% and the Oppenheimer Fund - 5.5%.
It’s interesting that Oppenheimer has been buying Yandex shares since the IPO (initial public offering) of the Internet company in 2011. Then the Fund got out of the Yandex's capital, but in 2019 it started buying the company's shares again. At the same time another American Fund - WCM Investment - sold its 4.5% shares of Yandex.
Dangerous draft law on significant Internet assets
In the summer of 2019, the deputy Anton Gorelkin introduced a draft law in the state Duma prohibiting foreigners to own more than 20% of shares in significant Internet assets. Yandex was the first to fall under the definition of significant Internet assets.
The bill caused a negative reaction from the participants of the Internet market. Yandex managed to negotiate a compromise with the authorities. The company transferred the Yandex Golden share to a specially created Public Interest Fund managed by representatives of five Russian universities, the Skolkovo Moscow school of management, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Fund of the Moscow secondary school No. 57 support.
The Fund will be able to block the acquisition of more than 10% of Yandex shares by anyone and will coordinate transactions on the sale of significant intellectual property, the transfer of personal data of Russians abroad and the conclusion of agreements with foreign countries.
