(Reuters) – Internet company Yandex said on Friday it was making changes to its finance team ahead of a possible corporate restructuring that is expected to see it cede ownership and control of key Russian-based businesses.
Sources told Reuters last month that shareholders of Yandex’s holding company, many of them Western investment funds, may be able to earn $7 billion from a full divestment of its Russian business.
Svetlana Demyashkevich, chief financial officer of Yandex’s Dutch holding company, Yandex NV, will transition to senior vice president of finance, Yandex said.
“In this capacity (Demyashkevich) will advise the board on financial matters and report directly to chairman John Boynton,” Yandex said in a statement.
Alexander Balakhnin, head of strategy for Yandex’s e-commerce, mobility and delivery businesses, would be named the group’s new chief financial officer.
Yandex said the changes were effective from August 1.
Yandex NV hopes to sell the main revenue-generating activities in Russia and develop four new units, self-driving technologies, cloud computing, data labeling and educational technology independently, internationally.
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow, editing by Louise Heavens)