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Yandex N.V.
Yandex Announces First Quarter 2023 Financial Results
AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands, April 27, 2023 -- Yandex (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX), a Dutch public limited company and one of Europe's largest internet businesses, today announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023.
Q1 2023 Financial and Operational Highlights1,2
(1) Pursuant to SEC rules regarding convenience translations, Russian ruble (RUB) amounts have been translated into U.S. dollars in this release at a rate of RUB 77.0863 to $1.00, the official exchange rate quoted as of March 31, 2023 by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
Financial outlook
Given that uncertainty concerning future geopolitical developments and the macro environment remains high, our visibility over the short- and medium-term is limited and we remain unable to provide any forward-looking expectations at this stage. We aim to remain transparent about the current performance and key trends across our businesses.
Corporate and Subsequent Events
Impact of the current geopolitical crisis
Current geopolitical tensions and their impact on the Russian and global economy have created an exceptionally challenging environment for our business, team and shareholders. These developments have adversely impacted (and may in the future materially adversely impact) the macroeconomic climate in Russia, resulting in volatility of the ruble, currency controls, materially increased interest rates and inflation and a potential contraction in consumer spending, as well as the withdrawal of foreign businesses and suppliers from the Russian market. In addition, laws or regulations may be adopted that may adversely affect our non-Russian shareholders and the value of the shares they hold in our company. We provided detailed information on our risk exposure and possible adverse impacts on our businesses in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2022, which was filed on April 20, 2023. We continue to provide services to our users and partners with no interruptions. We are taking appropriate measures to conserve cash and to consider our capital allocation and budget appropriately during this period of uncertainty, while remaining committed to continue investing in the development of our key businesses and services. We are closely monitoring sanctions and export control developments as well as the macroeconomic climate and consumer sentiment in Russia and we are assessing contingency plans to address potential developments. Our Board and management are focused on the wellbeing of our approximately 23,000 employees in Russia and abroad, while doing everything we can to safeguard the interests of our shareholders and other stakeholders.
Consolidated Results
The following table provides a summary of our key consolidated financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2023:
Our segment disclosure is provided in the Segment financial results section below. Cash, cash equivalents and term deposits as of March 31, 2023:
Segment financial results
Starting in Q1 2023, we introduced the following changes to our segments under which we reported our quarterly financial results previously, in order to better reflect the operational structure of our businesses:
These changes have been applied retroactively to all periods presented.
Search & Portal
Our Search and Portal segment includes Search, Geo, Weather and a number of other services offered in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Key operational trends:
Revenues increased by 54% and Ex-TAC revenues grew by 50% year-on-year in Q1 2023 driven by solid performance in the Yandex Advertising Network and Search on the back of our ongoing investments in advertising technologies and products (especially in SMB and e-commerce segments) as well as the expansion of the advertising inventory. In Q1 2023, SMB clients remained the key driver of the revenue growth although large clients demonstrated further recovery compared to the end of the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA margin came to 51.4% in Q1 2023 compared with 44.7% in Q1 2022. The year-on-year margin expansion mainly reflected positive effects from the operating leverage on the back of the solid revenue growth, the low base effect of last year (related to the one-off personnel payment of an additional, 13th month’s salary to our employees in March 2022), the cost optimization on the back the postponement of certain activities (primarily advertising and marketing), as well as the segregation of corporate overheads to our Other Business Units and Initiatives segment. These factors helped to offset an adverse impact from the increase in personnel costs, which resulted mainly from the changes in our compensation scheme, and the resulting inclusion in adjusted EBITDA of stock-based compensation expenses related to RSU equity awards of our employees settled in cash.
The E-commerce, Mobility and Delivery segment includes our transactional online-to-offline (O2O) businesses, which consist of (i) the mobility businesses, including ride-hailing in Russia and other countries across CIS and EMEA, Yandex Drive, our car-sharing business for both B2C and B2B, and scooters; (ii) the E-commerce businesses in Russia and CIS, including Yandex Market, our multi-category e-commerce marketplace, Yandex Lavka Russia, our hyperlocal convenience store delivery service, and the grocery delivery services of Yandex Eats and Delivery Club (since September 8, 2022, when the acquisition was completed); and (iii) our other O2O businesses, including Yandex Delivery, our last- and middle-mile logistics solution for individuals, enterprises and SMB (small and medium business); Yandex Eats and Delivery Club Food Delivery, our ready-to-eat delivery services from restaurants; Lavka Israel, our hyperlocal convenience store delivery service; and Yandex Fuel, our contactless payment service at gas stations, and several smaller experiments.
Key operational trends:
Yandex Market
Mobility
(8) An active buyer is a buyer who made at least 1 purchase in the last 12 months prior to the reporting date. (9) An active seller is a seller who made at least 1 sale in the last 1 month prior to the reporting date.
(10) Revenues related to sales of goods include revenues from Yandex Market 1P sales, revenues from Yandex Lavka 1P sales in Russia, where we use a first-party (1P) business model and act as a direct retailer, and exclude delivery fee revenues related to these businesses.
The growth in GMV of Mobility reached 34% year-on-year in Q1 2023, driven by an increase in the number of rides on the back of rider base and growth of order frequency across all our regions of presence, as well as by a solid increase of share of non-economy tariffs. The growth in GMV of E-commerce was 67% year-on-year in Q1 2023 supported by a diversification of assortment and an expansion of pickup points network, organic growth in the user base, as well as acquisition of Delivery Club in September 2022, while constrained by an abnormally high base of last year (GMV growth in February and March 2022). GMV of other O2O services grew by 71% year-on-year in Q1 2023, with Yandex Delivery and Yandex Food Delivery services including Delivery Club acquisition, being the largest contributors, with the growth exceeding 120% year-on-year. E-commerce, Mobility and Delivery segment revenues increased by 60% year-on-year in Q1 2023, mainly driven by E-commerce services (where Yandex Market was the largest contributor to growth in absolute terms, followed by Yandex Lavka) and Other O2O services (driven by Food Delivery and Delivery). Mobility revenues increased by 23%, while E-commerce revenues increased by 97%. E-commerce revenue growth was fueled by an increase in 1P share in Yandex Market GMV, improvement of 3P take rates and accelerated growth of advertising revenue. Other O2O services revenues delivered 87% year-on-year growth where Delivery was the key contributor to growth, followed by the effect of the acquisition of Delivery Club, which has been integrated into the Food Delivery services business. Eliminations related to the E-commerce, Mobility and Delivery segment represent the eliminations of intercompany revenues between different businesses within the segment. The year-on-year dynamic was mainly attributed to expansion of intercompany synergies with a higher volume of E-commerce and Food Delivery orders fulfilled by our Yandex Delivery business compared to a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA loss of E-commerce, Mobility and Delivery was RUB 10,799 million in Q1 2023 compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of RUB 8,445 million in Q1 2022, primarily driven by the growth of the scale of E-commerce and Delivery businesses as well as consolidation of Delivery Club, while Adjusted EBITDA margin further improved as percentage of revenue.
Plus and Entertainment Services
The Plus and Entertainment Services segment includes our subscription service Yandex Plus, Yandex Music, Kinopoisk, Yandex Afisha and our production center Yandex Studio.
Key operational trends:
Plus and Entertainment Services revenues grew 129% in Q1 2023 compared with Q1 2022. The increase was primarily driven by the growth of subscription revenue on the back of the expanding base of paid subscribers and changes in tariff mix, as well as solid trends in other revenue streams, including licensing, advertising and Afisha. Adjusted EBITDA improved significantly, to a loss of only RUB 0.2 billion from a loss of RUB 3.2 billion in Q1 2022 driven by a positive operating leverage effect on the back of the subscription revenue growth (which grew 102% year-on-year). Classifieds
The Classifieds segment includes Auto.ru, Yandex Realty, Yandex Rent and Yandex Travel.
Classifieds revenues increased by 84% in Q1 2023 compared with Q1 2022. The revenue growth was supported by the solid performance of Yandex Travel and Yandex Rent as a result of increased demand for our services and market share gains in the respective verticals. However, solid growth was offset by an adverse impact in service revenue in our auto classifieds business due to squeezed supply of new cars in the market. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to a loss of RUB 0.1 billion in Q1 2023 compared with a positive adjusted EBITDA of RUB 0.2 billion in Q1 2022 as a result of the growth of continuing investments in the long-term growth of our businesses such as Yandex Travel and Yandex Rent as well as higher personnel expenses following the changes to our compensation schemes. Other Business Units and Initiatives
The Other Business Units and Initiatives category includes our self-driving vehicles business (Yandex SDG), Yandex Cloud (including Yandex 360), Yandex Education (Practicum and other education initiatives), Devices and Alice, FinTech (including Yandex Pay and Yandex ID) and a number of other experiments as well as unallocated corporate expenses.
Other Business Units and Initiatives revenues increased 82% year-on-year in Q1 2023, driven mainly by Devices and Alice, Yandex Cloud and Yandex Practicum. The Devices and Alice revenue increased 172% year-on-year to RUB 6.1 billion in Q1 2023: the business benefited from a solid demand for our smart devices and own-branded smart TVs supported by effective promotional activities. Yandex Cloud revenue grew 127% year-on-year, supported by product portfolio expansion as well as improvement in our market share on the back of increasing demand for our services. The adjusted EBITDA loss amounted to RUB 11.1 billion compared to RUB 6.9 billion in Q1 2022 implying a 59% year-on-year increase amid much faster growth of the segment’s revenue. The loss increase was mainly attributed to segregation of unallocated corporate expenses from reportable segments’ adjusted EBITDA and their inclusion in the Other Business Units and Initiatives category (since Q3 2022), development of our FinTech vertical and investments in Yandex SDG (where adjusted EBITDA loss came to RUB 2.2 billion in Q1 2023), which was offset by a solid performance in Devices and Alice and Cloud business in Russia & CIS. Eliminations
Eliminations related to our revenues represent the elimination of transactions between the reportable segments, including advertising revenues, intercompany revenues related to brand royalties, data centers, devices sales and others.
Eliminations related to our revenues increased 174% in Q1 2023 compared with Q1 2022. The increase was mainly attributed to the increased intercompany revenue between our businesses (related to cross service advertising and marketing activities, device sales, the usage of data centers, other IT infrastructure and other centralized services by all business units), as a result of expanding integration between services in the face of the Group growth.
Consolidated Operating Costs and Expenses
Operating Expenses
Total operating expenses increased by 36% in Q1 2023 compared with Q1 2022. The increase was mainly due to the сost of revenues related to E-commerce, Mobility and Delivery businesses, Plus and Entertainment services, Devices and Alice, and growth of headcount and related personnel expenses across most of our business units due to the overall expansion of the businesses.
TAC grew 81% in Q1 2023 compared with Q1 2022 and represented 6.8% of total revenues, 100 basis points higher than in Q1 2022. The year-on-year growth of TAC as a share of revenue was primarily driven by TAC related to our distribution partners and the growing contribution of ad revenues related to the Yandex Advertising Network.
Total SBC expenses decreased by 7% in Q1 2023 compared with Q1 2022. The decrease was primarily related to the replacement of new RSU grants during 2022 by an increase in salaries and bonuses as well as material depreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Russian ruble in Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2022. In light of the ongoing halt of trading in our Class A shares on Nasdaq, during 2022 and 2023, participants have received and will receive cash compensation on the vesting dates of the relevant RSU equity awards, in an amount equal to the target value of each tranche of such awards. In Q1 2023, RUB 3.3 billion of the total RUB 5.8 billion in SBC expenses related to RSU equity awards settled in cash were recorded as part of personnel expenses, which reduced consolidated adjusted EBITDA.
Income/(loss) from operations
Income from operations amounted to RUB 2.0 billion in Q1 2023 compared to a loss from operations of RUB 12.4 billion in Q1 2022. This dynamic was mainly driven by the improved profitability of our Search and Portal, Plus and Entertainment segments, as well as Devices and Alice.
Income tax expense for Q1 2023 was RUB 1,952 million, down from RUB 2,518 million in Q1 2022. If we remove the effects of deferred tax asset valuation allowances, SBC expense, tax on dividends, tax provision recognized, other expenses not deductible for tax purposes and the effect of reduced tax rates in certain Russian subsidiaries, our effective tax rate for Q1 2023 was 20.2%, compared to 22.4% for Q1 2022.
Cash provided by operating activities was RUB 22.5 billion and cash paid for property and equipment, intangible assets and assets to be leased was RUB 9.6 billion for Q1 2023.
The total number of shares issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2023 was 361,482,282, including 325,783,607 Class A shares, 35,698,674 Class B shares, and one Priority share and excluding 558,663 Class A shares held in treasury.
There were also employee share options outstanding to purchase up to an additional 2.9 million shares, at a weighted average exercise price of $44.32 per share, 2.2 million of which were fully vested; equity-settled share appreciation rights (SARs) for 0.1 million shares, at a weighted average measurement price of $32.85, all of which were fully vested; restricted share units (RSUs) covering 9.1 million shares, of which RSUs to acquire 6.2 million shares were fully vested; and performance share units (PSUs) for 0.2 million shares. In addition, we have outstanding equity-linked awards in respect of our various Business Units, including options and synthetic options, for 4.5 million shares, 2.4 million of which were fully vested and may be settled in equity of our Business Units, cash or Yandex Class A shares.
ABOUT YANDEX
Yandex (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX) is a technology company registered in the Netherlands that builds intelligent products and services powered by machine learning. Our goal is to help consumers and businesses better navigate the online and offline world. Since 1997, we have delivered world-class, locally relevant search and navigation products, while also expanding into mobility, e-commerce, online entertainment, cloud computing and other markets to assist millions of consumers in Russia and a number of international markets. More information on Yandex can be found at /.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts, including, without limitation, statements regarding our future financial and business performance, our business and strategy and the impact of the current geopolitical and macroeconomic developments on our industry, business and financial results, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “estimate,” “expect,” “guide,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “will” and similar expressions and their negatives are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted or implied by such statements, and our reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted or implied by such statements include, among others, macroeconomic and geopolitical developments affecting the Russian economy or our business, changes in the political, legal and/or regulatory environment and regulatory and business responses to that crisis, including international economic sanctions and export controls, competitive pressures, changes in advertising patterns, changes in user preferences, technological developments, and our need to expend capital to accommodate the growth of the business, as well as those risks and uncertainties included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2022 and “Risk Factors” in the Shareholder Circular filed as Exhibit 99.2 to our Current Report on Form 6-K, which were filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 20, 2023 and November 18, 2019, respectively, and are available on our investor relations website at /sec-filings and on the SEC website at /. All information in this release and in the attachments is as of April 27, 2023, and Yandex undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.
USE OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES
To supplement the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we present the following non-GAAP financial measures: ex-TAC revenues, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin and Adjusted net income/(loss). The presentation of these financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the tables captioned “Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest comparable U.S. GAAP measures”, included following the accompanying financial tables. We define the various non-GAAP financial measures we use as follows:
These non-GAAP financial measures are used by management for evaluating financial performance as well as decision-making. Management believes that these metrics reflect the organic, core operating performance of the company, and therefore are useful to analysts and investors in providing supplemental information that helps them understand, model and forecast the evolution of our operating business.
Although our management uses these non-GAAP financial measures for operational decision-making and considers these financial measures to be useful for analysts and investors, we recognize that there are a number of limitations related to such measures. In particular, it should be noted that several of these measures exclude some recurring costs, particularly share-based compensation. In addition, the components of the costs that we exclude in our calculation of the measures described above may differ from the components that our peer companies exclude when they report their results of operations.
Below we describe why we make particular adjustments to certain U.S. GAAP financial measures:
TAC
We believe that it may be useful for investors and analysts to review certain measures both in accordance with U.S. GAAP and net of the effect of TAC, which we view as comparable to sales bonuses but, unlike sales bonuses, are not deducted from U.S. GAAP revenues. By presenting revenue, net of TAC, we believe that investors and analysts are able to obtain a clearer picture of our business without the impact of the revenues we share with our partners.
SBC
SBC is a significant expense item, and an important part of our compensation and incentive programs. As it is highly dependent on our share price at the time of equity award grants, we believe that it is useful for investors and analysts to see certain financial measures excluding the impact of these charges in order to obtain a clearer picture of our operating performance. However, because we settled the RSU equity awards of our employees in cash during 2022 and Q1 2023, starting from Q3 2022 we no longer eliminate the relevant SBC expense corresponding to the cash payment from adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income.
Foreign exchange gains
Because we hold significant assets and liabilities in currencies other than our Russian ruble operating currency, and because foreign exchange fluctuations are outside of our operational control, we believe that it is useful to present adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income and related margin measures excluding these effects, in order to provide greater clarity regarding our operating performance.
Amortization of debt discount and issuance costs
We also adjust net income/(loss) for interest expense representing amortization of the debt discount related to our convertible senior notes due 2025 issued in Q1 2020. We have eliminated this expense from adjusted net income as it is non-cash in nature and is not indicative of our ongoing operating performance. We have repurchased substantially all of the outstanding notes to date.
Expenses related to contingent consideration
We may incur expenses in connection with acquisitions that are not indicative of our recurring core operating performance. In particular, we are required under U.S. GAAP to accrue as an expense the contingent compensation that is payable to certain employees in connection with certain business combinations. We eliminate these acquisition-related expenses from adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income to provide management and investors a tool for comparing on a period-to-period basis our operating performance in the ordinary course of operations.
The tables at the end of this release provide detailed reconciliations of each non-GAAP financial measure we use from the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measure.
YANDEX N.V. Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in millions of Russian rubles and U.S. dollars, except share and per share data)
* Derived from audited consolidated financial statements YANDEX N.V. Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (in millions of Russian rubles and U.S. dollars, except share and per share data)
YANDEX N.V.
YANDEX N.V.
RECONCILIATIONS OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES TO THE NEAREST COMPARABLE U.S. GAAP MEASURES
Reconciliation of Ex-TAC Revenues to U.S. GAAP Revenues
Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to U.S. GAAP Net Income/(loss)
Reconciliation of Adjusted Net Income/(loss) to U.S. GAAP Net Income/(loss)
Contacts:
Investor Relations Yulia Gerasimova Phone: 8 E-mail:
Media Relations Ilya Grabovskiy Phone: 0 E-mail:
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1619033 27-Apr-2023
