“For this reason, after the unification of Yandex Taxi and Uber companies, if this structure is to be headed by an Armenian citizen or a person of Armenian origin, drivers of Baku will be called on to cease communication with this company,” a spokesman for the agency was quoted by Armenian media as saying. NewCo has “ appointed Armenian Tigran Khudaverdiyan, head of Yandex Taxi, as its CEO.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over Nagorno- Karabakh. A shaky UN-negotiated ceasefire has maintained a peace since 1994 but analysts have been warning that tension is rising with sporadic outbursts of violence and shelling intensifying.
Four days earlier Uber and Yandex Taxi agreed to merge their operations in Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Uber owns a 36.6% stake in the company and Yandex Taxi owns a 59.3% stake with the final 4.1% company,” being owned by management.
In a statement on the merger, Mr Khudaverdiyan, still formerly head of Yandex Taxi until the merger is completed by the end of 2017, said on July 13 that the new company currently services 35m rides every month, is growing at 400% per year and has a paper value of $3.725b.
“This combination greatly enhances Yandex’s ability to offer better quality service to our riders and drivers, to quickly expand our services to new regions, and to build a sustainable business,” he said.
Yandex Taxi and Uber dominate the ride-hailing market in the former Soviet Union. Their nearest rival, Gett, holds roughly 15% of the market.
Market analysts welcomed the ” move. Roman Luzgin, an analyst for investment website Seeking Alpha, said: “As the NewCo will account for more than 70% of the ride-on- demand market, the advantage of the monopolistic position will appear once the deal is executed.”
NewsCo will keep both brands operational. On the New York Stock Exchange shares in Yandex, best known as the Russian-language version of Google, rose to $31 from $27 after the news.
ENDS
Copyright ©Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)
