Russian Search Engine Yandex Rumored to File for a $1.5 Billion IPO

Yandex, the largest search engine in Russia, is mulling an IPO according to rumors, following the successful initial public offer from another Russian internet giant, Mail.ru. The search company is looking to raise about $1.5 billion in the IPO and is considering a listing in London.

According to Reuters, the Russian search engine will file for an IPO early next year. While the preferred market is London, where Mail.ru was also recently listed, the NASDAQ is also an option.

The IPO is expected to take place in the first half of the next year. At $1.5 billion it would be one of the largest recent IPOs and one of the biggest from the Russian market.

Yandex wouldn't confirm the rumors but said that it is always looking at "various financing and strategic alternatives."

It would not be the first time Yandex has considered an IPO, the earliest being in 2006. In 2008 the company also planned an IPO, hoping to raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion at a $5 billion valuation, but the global economic context put those plans on indefinite hold.

Now, with the global economy recovering and a growing appetite for IPOs, Yandex is exploring this possibility again.

Yandex is the largest search engine in the Russia with about 65 percent of the market far ahead of number two, Google and other competitors. Google has a 22 percent market share in Russia followed by Mail.ru with 7.4 percent. Globally, it is ranked as the seventh search engine.

The company had revenues of over $270 million in 2010, nothing in the likes of Google, but a significant amount considering the size of the local market. This year, revenue is estimated to have increased significantly reaching about $383 million from January till September.

Mail.ru Group, the former Digital Sky Technologies, which owns stakes in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon, as well as the Mail.ru portal and several other Russian properties was recently listed at the London Stock Exchange and raised over $1 billion.