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April 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
and emergencies; in the current situation, until December 31.
The online sales procedure is still to be determined by the government. Should the regulations stay in effect beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, it could have long-term effects on the pharmacy industry in Russia.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, in 2018 online marketplaces Ozon.ru and Beru.ru of Yandex started selling pharmaceuticals and other pharmacy-related products, as the legislation on the online trade of medicine was in a loosely defined grey zone.
However, Ozon was warned against selling pharmaceuticals online by RosZdravNadzor, the state medical watchdog.
Serbia revokes coronavirus control decree following complaints, detention of journalist Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said the government has decided to revoke a decree giving it control over information on the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic after a local journalist was arrested for reporting that a big hospital lacks protective equipment.
The arrest provoked complaints and Brnabic said her government will revoke the decree upon the request of President Aleksandar Vucic. She added it was her fault that she had not informed people well about the reasons for the decree.
Brnabic also explained the goal of the decree was to prevent distribution of fake news and that now the government will be occupied with disproving untrue news.
Serbia declared a state of emergency in mid-March and imposed tough restrictions on movement
of people to contain the spread of coronavirus. The government is providing daily information on delivery of protective equipment, which was either bought by the government or donated by China.
The arrested reporter, Ana Lalic, has been released from detention. She was arrested after reporting that a hospital in Vojvodina lacks protective equipment. The hospital complained that the publication provoked unrest among society.
Russian job search portal HeadHunter ups revenues 27% in 2019
Russian job search portal HeadHunter reported 23% year-on-year and 27% y/y revenue growth in 4Q19 and FY2019 respectively, with the top line growth decelerating slightly from 29% in 9M19 on the normalisation of the base effect.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, in May 2020 HeadHunter carried out a successful IPO on NASDAQ that was ten times oversubscribed. However, shortly after the IPO some analysts saw the shares as overhyped.
HeadHunter's Ebitda was up 22%, making a 50% margin (respectively 38% and 50.5% in 2019), with net income up 27%.
For 2020 the company guides 21-25% revenue growth, 50-52% Ebitda margin, but does not include the potential negative impact from the coronavirus epidemic. An interim dividend of $0.5 per share will be paid for 2019, making a yield of 3%, BCS Global Markets estimated on March 13.
"The numbers came in a notch below our estimates; the same stands for 2020 growth guidance (our estimate and Bloomberg consensus is at the upper end of the range)," BCS GM commented, while noting that the business is sensitive to the economic situation, and hence could see risks to its 2020 outlook.
US court sides with SEC in blow to Telegram's blockchain project Gram
The US Southern District court of New York
has sided with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in preliminary ruling that the Telegram messager sold unregistered securities