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Comment by CoolGuySteve | Hacker News Reader

Wow, if Yandex is shutdown on NASDAQ for more than 5 days, they have to repay more than $1.25 billion in debt.

Seems pretty fast.

And they only have $625million of cash, of which only a portion is outside of Russia. They also state they may not be able to raise the balance of the note...this is a perfect shitstorm.

What if step 2 is Russia declaring that, as a sanction against economic sanctions, Yandex is nationalized? Can it avoid duty to existing stockholders?

Possibly, but it is registered in Amsterdam and listed in the USA. Perhaps it works the Russian government bails them out and takes over as a result.

it's already been 5 days by my count (hasn't traded since last Friday)

I guess we’re now at step2:

> In the event that such redemption right was triggered, we would be required to issue a notice within five calendar days informing the holders of the Notes of their redemption rights.

Given: > The Yandex group as a whole does not currently have sufficient resources to redeem the Notes in full

Yandex seems destined to bankruptcy and/or just walking away from the west.

Uncertain who the $1.25b are owed to.

Just because the right to redeem exists doesn't mean it will be used. Creditors might be unlikely to redeem if it they knew it would result in a default.

If it was a single creditor they could evaluate the situation and make an optimal decision. If it's a group of them, now you have a prisoner's dilemma. You don't want to be the last one pondering your move when everyone else has already redeemed their share and left the bag empty.

Except their claim is over a holding company that has lost all hold over it's actual profit generating subsidiaries:

> In the event that we were prevented from distributing additional funds from our Russian subsidiaries to our Dutch parent company, Yandex would not have sufficient resources to redeem a majority of the Notes

Better take the 50% haircut than the long game that gets you nothing.

At least 50% haircut.

but any one of us can buy one of the bonds and trigger the right

theyre probably trading at a substantial discount!

Would be a shame if the US government forced creditors to redeem because of the sanctions.

It would be ridiculous.

Why so?

There's a risk foreign currency held by Yandex might be sold to RUB per a Russian government order. I'd rather have shareholders cash out than have these assets fall into the hands of sanctioned entities.

Double dog dare you to buy their bonds at the discount and trigger the redemption right

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