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lending for shoppers and merchants. Currently the plan is for Ozon to keep acting as loan origination platform for partner banks, which in turn fund the loans Hence, management does not expect to have working capital freeze in lending.
No M&A plans, including in fintech. Prioritize organic growth, though if attractive M&A opportunity seen, may act on it
Competition – Ozon noted cut in commissions for marketplace by competitors, but it sees no visible impact on its own performance
Growth rates – Management does not see strong base of 2020 as a risk to 2021 growth rates, except for high comparison base in March L-T and 2021 targets.
Russian online retailer Wildberries launched operations in France, Italy, and Spain, the company said on February 24 in a statement cited by Prime. Users can make orders on online stores, individual for these countries and via the mobile applications, and delivery will be done with logistics partners. “Goods can be ordered with home delivery or to a partner pick-up point – 2,500 points are located in France and 1,900 in Spain. Italy has only courier delivery so far,” Wildberries said. The company has been rolling out in the other countries of the CIS and the EU over the last year. It now works in 13 countries. It ran into some controversy with its Ukraine roll out where it was criticised for offering Russian goods to a Ukrainian audience. It removed those goods from its offering.
EPAM’s 4Q20 results confirm strong demand supported by a combination of the pandemic-driven boost to digitalisation, on the one hand, and increasing IT spending in anticipation of a post-pandemic recovery, on the other. This coincided with the company’s increasing ability to offer solutions of greater complexity and larger scale. Hence, matching this demand with supply remains the key near-term determinant of EPAM’s growth, we think. From this perspective, we see the guided 2021 top line growth of 23% y/y as conservative. We forecast it at 26% y/y and a 2020-25F CAGR of 23%. Still, EPAM’s 2021F P/E multiple of 50x does not look undemanding, although it is justified in the context of EPS growth vs. peers. Having increased our 12-month Target Price 20% to $420, we are reiterating our Hold recommendation on an ETR of 11%.
EPAM has acquired PolSource, a Salesforce Platinum Partner, which specialises in consultancy services and delivering digital transformation solutions. EPAM expects the deal to close at the beginning of 2Q21, although the terms have not been disclosed at this point.
According to EPAM, this acquisition will allow it to scale Salesforce's capabilities and expand into new markets. We welcome this use of
146 RUSSIA Country Report March 2021 www.intellinews.com