Russia's Yandex to buy Acropol bank in move to develop financial services
MOSCOW, April 29 (Reuters) - Russian internet giant Yandex said on Thursday it had agreed to buy mid-sized bank Acropol for 1.1 billion roubles ($14.8 million), a move that enables it to develop its financial services through the acquisition of a banking licence.
The strategic rationale in buying Acropol, ranked Russia's 330th largest bank in terms of assets as of April 1, was to obtain a banking licence, Yandex said in a statement.
Yandex has long sought a means of developing its fintech offering but split from a joint venture with state lender Sberbank last summer, ceding control of e-payment service Yandex.Money in the process.
In October, a $5.48 billion cash-and-share acquisition of online bank Tinkoff fell through.
The Acropol transaction is still subject to regulatory approval by the central bank, Yandex said.
($1 = 74.4350 roubles) (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov and Alexander Marrow; Additional reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; Editing by Edmund Blair)
