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Russian antimonopoly regulator do not rule out refusal in Yandex.Taxi, Uber merger deal

MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia may bar Yandex.Taxi and Uber deal completion if it sees threat to consumers in that, head of FAS Igor Artemyev said on Friday on the air with Rossiya 24 TV Channel.

"We are definitely ready to work with companies. We have good contract with Uber and with Yandex; we together passed through many important positions and dialogs from the standpoint of the system they implemented earlier: so that it was positive for consumers and save for consumers. Our relations with them in the dialog are highly positive in respect of either company and we will try to work very kindly with them in that sense. However, if we see a threat, we will not authorize this deal," Artemyev said.

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FAS has three months to review the transaction. "The law tells us we have a right to [review] this deal for 30 months plus we have a right to extend it for 60 more days. That is, we will respond within 90 days," he said.

Yandex.Taxi and Uber announced earlier that the companies agreed to combine their businesses in Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan.

According to the report from Yandex, both Yandex.Taxi and Uber app will operate as before, driver apps, on the other hand, will be transitioned to a unified platform. The new company will also operate the UberEATS service in the region.

Uber will invest $225 mln and Yandex will invest $100 mln into the joint venture, valuing it at $3.725 bln on a post-money basis. The transaction is still subject to regulatory approvals and is scheduled to close in the Q4 2017.

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