The State Duma wants to limit the share of foreign capital in Yandex and Mail.ru Group

Import substitution in RuNet continues. State Duma deputy from United Russia Anton Gorelkin at the end of the spring session was introduced a draft law that should limit the opportunities of foreign investors in terms of ownership and management of Internet resources that are significant for the country.

The bill suggests that foreign citizens should own no more than 20% of the shares of Russian IT companies. Although a government commission may change the share of securities. At the same time, the text of the explanatory note does not contain specifics about the selection criteria. There is only vague talk about the number of users, the volume and composition of information, and the expected effect for the development of the national information and communication infrastructure. And if the first points are even more or less clear, then how to calculate the effect is not indicated. However, this wording affects all major resources, digital platforms, iOS and Android applications, as well as mobile and cable operators.

The significance of the resource will be determined by a special government commission (probably the same as in the case of shares), and data for it will be prepared by Roskomnadzor. At the same time, Gorelkin said that Yandex and Mail.ru Group will be first in line. In total, in his opinion, 3–5 services are considered informationally significant, including, probably, telecom operators.

At the same time, it is planned that the commission will prescribe the ownership structure of IT companies in each case separately. That is, it will decide what share can be placed on foreign trading platforms.  

The deputy clarified that these are, in fact, foreign companies with an opaque ownership structure that process, among other things, the personal data of Russians. We also note that 85% of Yandex class A shares are publicly traded on the Nasdaq exchange, and 50% of Mail.ru Group is traded in the format of receipts on the London Stock Exchange.

By the way, sanctions are provided for violators. First, in the event of violations, foreign shareholders will retain voting rights over 20% of the shares. Secondly, the service will be prohibited from advertising. The latter is expected to be more effective than blocking. 

Investors have already reacted to this news. In particular, the growth of Yandex quotes, which began on Friday morning, was won back by the news about the restriction of foreign capital. Although then the price still rose again. At the same time, Yandex criticized the draft law.

“If the bill is adopted, the unique ecosystem of Internet businesses in Russia, where local players successfully compete with global companies, could be destroyed. As a result, end users will suffer. We believe that the bill in its current form should not be adopted and are ready to participate in its discussion,” said a Yandex representative. They say approximately the same thing at Megafon, where they believe that the new norm is still “raw” and will lead to the collapse of the Big Data market in Russia, and will also cause discrimination against Russian companies.

VimpelCom is still studying the bill, but MTS refused to comment.

Source: 3dnews.ru