“Catalytic Peeple” bought up assets: Vladimir Potanin’s structure got a share in Russian “Yandex”
Catalyst Peeple became the sole owner of Meridian-Service, which was part of the consortium of investors that bought out Yandex’s Russian assets.
This information was reported by Interfax, referring to data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRYUL).
“Catalytic Peeple is a structure of T-Technology (which owns T-Bank) and billionaire Vladimir Potanin’s Interros.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, on May 26, Catalyst Peeple received 100% of shares in Meridian-Service.
Interros soon issued a press release confirming that Catalyst Peeple had acquired a 9.95% stake in Yandex, with the deal closing at the end of May 2025. “The acquisition of a minority stake in Russia’s Yandex is fully in line with Interros’ strategy to develop innovative business areas. We act as a strategic investor and view this transaction as a long-term investment,” the company said.
Information about the deal was confirmed by T-Technology.
Earlier Meridian-Service was owned by Alexander Ryazanov, former Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom.
“Meridian-Service was among the investors in the acquisition of Yandex’s Russian business. Control of the main legal entity of Russia’s Yandex was transferred to the closed-end mutual investment fund (Closed-end mutual fund) Consortium.First in 2024. In addition to Meridian-Service, it includes the following companies: FMP, created by Yandex managers, Argonaut (owned by Lukoil), Infinity Management (owned by Alexander Chachava, managing partner of LETA Capital), IT.Elaboration (owned by Pavel Prass, CEO of INFINITUM Specialized Depository JSC). “Meridian-Service” received 10% in the fund “Consortium. First”.
The Bell and Meduza sources earlier named Vladimir Potanin, among others, as the main contenders for participation in the consortium to buy control in Yandex.