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Taxi service Vezet does not violate agreement with Mail.ru Group through Yandex.Taxi deal

Vezet operator states its compliance with the agreements with Mail.Ru Group

MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. Taxi aggregator Vezet said it did not violate the terms of the agreement with Mail.ru on attracting a convertible loan from the group because of the deal with Yandex.Taxi.

"We are not violating the terms of the loan by this deal. We intend to strictly abide by all our agreements with Mail.Ru Group," Vezet press service told TASS.

A source in Vezet group told TASS that Mail.ru Group has not exercised the right to convert the issued loan into shares, so the loan will be returned on mutually beneficial terms.

Mail.ru Group press service told TASS earlier that the company provided a convertible loan to taxi aggregator Vezet last summer, and it had not yet agreed to Yandex.Taxi's acquiring the aggregator's assets. Mail.ru Group reserves the right to veto a deal.

"When concluding an agreement on issuing a convertible loan, one of the conditions stipulated in the contract was Mail.ru Group’s right to veto the disposal of the key assets of Vezet group of companies. The parties to the new agreement should have received a written consent from Mail.ru Group. Mail.ru Group has not yet made the decision, the agreement has not been issued, therefore we consider the announcement premature," the company said.

Earlier, Yandex.Taxi announced the acquisition of call centers and software of Vezet taxi aggregator. In June 2018, Mail.ru Group announced an agreement with Vezet group on a convertible loan in preparation for a new round of investments. At that time, the terms of the loan were not disclosed, and in accordance with the agreement, Mail.Ru Group received the right to convert the loan into Vezet ordinary shares.

"The current shareholders of Vezet will receive new shares in MLU (Yandex’s ride-sharing and food delivery joint venture with Uber), representing up to 3.6% of the issued share capital of the company by the bargain conclusion, together with up to $71.5 mln in cash, subject to certain operating and integration milestones. Following the completion of the acquisition, Yandex NV will own 56.2% of MLU, Uber will own 35.0%, and approximately 5.3% will be held by employees under the MLU equity incentive plan," Yandex wrote in its press release. The total amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The parties also expect the deal to be closed before the end of 2019.