Cian Approves 12-Month, $51.6M Share Buyback

The Russian real estate portal Cian will buy back up to RUB 4 billion (USD 51.6m) of its own shares to tackle what it believes is undervalued stock.

The share buyback program is planned to be financed through a combination of debt and equity, and will run until July 2027.

Cian has an estimated free float of 44%. For comparison, the largest shareholder, Speedtime Group, holds a 35% stake in the company.

A company statement said:

The current market valuation does not fully reflect the fundamental value of the business and its long-term growth prospects. The share buyback is expected to reduce the number of shares in free float, which will help to increase free cash flow and earnings per share in future periods.

Olga Zhilinskaya, Group CFO, confirmed that Cian will not use repurchased shares to finance M&A transactions or conduct an IPO, nor will key shareholders participate in the buyback.

"The repurchased shares will not be subject to voting rights, according to the company's internal policies. However, dividends will continue to accrue on them—essentially, this is a cash flow that remains within the company and will, among other things, be returned to shareholders in subsequent dividend distributions.

"We are not ruling out the possibility of canceling the repurchased shares in the future, but it's worth keeping in mind that this is a fairly expensive procedure in the current Russian market. If this happens, the dividend amount per share will increase.

"These shares will not be used for any purposes such as an additional SPO or for use in any M&A programs."

Shares hit a three-year high in December 2025, at RUB 743 (USD 9.47), before falling to RUB 464 (USD 5.91) at the beginning of July. The share buyback programme was announced less than a week later, with shares recovering to RUB 555 (USD 7.07) at the time of writing.