bne_newspaper_December_07_2018

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December 7, 2018 www.intellinews.com Kremlin to buy Alfa Bank
from oligarch Fridman
Jason Corcoran in Moscow
The Kremlin is lining up an audacious deal for one of its proxies to acquire Alfa Bank, Russia’s largest private lender by assets and a vital cornerstone of the nation’s financial scene since the early 1990s, bne IntelliNews can reveal.
Either state-controlled VTB Group or Gazprombank, Russia’s second-largest and third-largest lender,
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is the king of the woods
Filip Brokes in Prague
In 2010, an array of environmental NGOs and small business owners lined up to protest against the adoption of the new commercial policy of the state-owned company Czech Forests, the largest owner of forestlands in the Czech Republic. They feared that the proposed new system for subcon- tracting forestry work would lead to market domi- nation by a few large companies, with potentially
Content:
2 Top Stories
10 The Regions This Week 14 Chart
16 Central Europe
19 Southeast Europe
23 Eastern Europe
25 Eurasia
28 Opinion
30 Lists24 Lists
Alfa Bank owner Mikhail Fridman
respectively, will be allowed to swallow up Alfa. Mikhail Fridman, the billionaire oligarch founder of the bank who relocated to London in 2015, has agreed in principle to do a deal although the price may still be a sticking point, according to well- placed banking sources.
22 I Cover story See page 2
bne December 2018
bne De
In 2 NG lin tion o state- larges Repub new s work of a fe tially forest
They eight contra is a da fert ho Prime Andre now i centu
Babis built h Czech Babis most i pean a sole o Agrof contro count
Altho owne to tran funds lawye to com laws – tionsh the ob vehem
Whate pany, Althou in agr a majo fields
Likely tende Czech the tr Agrof Uniles
devastating implications for Czech forests.
CZECH PRIME
MINISTER ANDREJ
They were right to be worried. A mere eight years
later, the single largest subcontractor of work in state-owned forests is a daughter company of the
BABIS IS THE KING
OF THE WOODS
Agrofert holding, controlled by the current Prime
See page 5
Filip Brokes in Prague
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