REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MOSCOW -- Russian smartphone manufacturer Yota Devices is planning to relocate its headquarters from Moscow to Toronto or Waterloo in Canada by the end of this year, the company's CEO told The Financial Post.

Yota Devices, the company behind the YotaPhone, an Android device with a regular LCD screen in the front and a touch-sensitive e-ink panel in the back, is aiming to take advantage of the talent pool in Canada left behind by BlackBerry Ltd in the wake of its restructuring, CEO Vlad Martynov was quoted as saying.

The company, according to The Financial Post, already has more than 15 former BlackBerry employees on its staff out of a total of 150 worldwide. About 70% of its employees today, including several Yota Devices? executives, are working outside Russia in offices of various sizes spread across Frankfurt, Oulu, and Singapore, along with three sales staff in Toronto.

The decision to relocate its headquarters to Canada was motivated in large part by lower costs, tax benefits and government support, on top of the potential recruitment opportunity, Martynov said.

Yota Devices plans to raise $100 million in capital within the next year, with the help of Toronto-based investment bank Jacob Securities, and potentially list the company on the Toronto Stock Exchange by 2015.

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