Internet Firm Yandex Mulls Listing

Internet portal Yandex is considering a listing abroad but is unlikely to make a move for at least a year, chief executive Arkady Volozh said on Monday.

"Banks are promising us a golden future, diamonds in the sky, if we do an IPO," said Yandex founder Volozh, fresh from a trip to the United States to met investment banks and potential in­vestors such as Google and Yahoo.

"The option of staying private or sell­ing a stake to a strategic investor is also very much on the table," he said.

"Even if we do in the end decide to go public, it will take a lot of time and preparations to organize an IPO."

If the company does decide to go for an IPO, it would not happen within a year’s time, Volozh said.

As for the venue, it could be the Lon­don Stock Exchange or New York, where the company’s peers were trading. "We look more like a tech story," Volozh said.