Written by Alexander Murrow
(Reuters) – Shares in Amsterdam-based Nevius Group fell 26% in trading on Monday for the first time since February 2022. This comes as the AI infrastructure company, once owned by Yandex and often referred to as the “Google of Russia,” is now in full swing on the Nasdaq listing.
The stock, which had been trading under the Yandex ticker through its Amsterdam-based parent company, was suspended shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In July, Nebius emerged following a $5.4 billion deal to split Yandex’s Russian and overseas assets.
The stock was trading at $18.94 per share in February 2022, but by 1520 GMT it had recouped some of its losses and was trading 14.1% lower at $16.26.
Yandex once had a market capitalization of more than $30 billion, but its revenue-generating business in online search, advertising and ride-hailing services has been siphoned off to Russia, and Nebius, which targets a slice of the growing AI cloud market, is a very different company. is presenting a proposal. .
Denis Vuivorov, individual investor at Nevius and head of research in BCS’ venture capital and pre-IPO division, said the free float, held mainly by Western investors and funds, was 78.1%, with volatility expected in the first few days. It is likely that this will become extremely high. .
In an analysis published on the financial website Seeking Alpha, Vuivorov values the company at $4.6 billion, or $23 per share, based on company plans and comparisons with companies such as CoreWeave, Lambda Labs and Sacra. Evaluated.
Another investor, who once owned about $200,000 worth of shares, said he might buy more shares on Monday if people who wrote off their shares were forced to sell and prices plummeted.
Dr. Jean-Oliver Stritch, an advisor to the family funds that invested in Nevius, said Nevius’ value would be determined by positive liquidity shocks from hyped AI investor demand and the negative impact of impatient sellers. said.
Nebius, whose core business is providing Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and AI cloud as a service, expects these markets to grow rapidly in the coming years.
The company said Friday it plans to spend $600 million to $1.5 billion in capital expenditures to increase capacity at its data centers in Finland, France and Finland, and expects revenue to triple to $500 million to $700 million in 2025. announced that it is expected to grow. North America.
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Louise Heavens and David Evans)
