Russia's Yandex sets up e-commerce venture with Sberbank

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's biggest search engine Yandex said on Wednesday it would set up an e-commerce joint venture with Russia's biggest bank Sberbank on the Yandex.Market platform.

Sberbank will invest 30 billion rubles ($500.87 million) into Yandex.Market, valuing it at 60 billion rubles, Yandex said in a statement.

The companies will own equal stakes in the venture while up to 10 percent of its shares will be allocated for an equity incentive program for Yandex.Market management and employees.

Maxim Grishakov, CEO of Yandex.Market, said the partnership with Sberbank would help to develop payment solutions and allow it to introduce new features, such as consumer lending.

The deal is expected to close by the end of 2017.