Page 23 - bne_newspaper_June_15_2018

Opinion
June 15, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
bne:Tech
May, 2018 www.intellinews.com @bneintellinews
Avast to enter London bourse in bid to raise up to $1bn Jaroslav Hroch in Prague
Avast, which owns the popular consumer antivirus company AVG, will apply to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in the hope of raising $200mn (CZK4.1bn) in primary proceeds from an IPO, the Czech-founded company announced on April 12.
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St Petersburg's start-up scene flourishes on high talent and low costs
Contents
Avast to enter London bourse
in bid to raise up to $1bn 1 Avast to enter London bourse in bid to raise up to $1bn 2 St Petersburg's start-up scene
flourishes on high talent and low costs 3 Romania entrepreneur aims to put home-grown UAV defence technology industry on the map 6
FinTech
Russia's mobile major MTS increases stake in Ozon to 16.7% 9
Blockchain
Romanian startups at the heart
of blockchain energy trading rally 10
Central Europe
Russian-Lithuanian startup Gosu.ai
raises $1.9mn from Russian and
French investors 13
Eurasia
Iran hit by cyber attack that left US
flag on screens 14 Iranian government set to block hugely popular Telegram messaging app 15 Iran's black market phone disconnection drive pushes up legal mobile imports 15
Eastern Europe
Internet catches up with TV on Russian
ad market 17 Sales of connected appliances jump
in Russia 17 Russia's HeadHunter Group seeks
to raise $250mn with NASDAQ IPO 18 Russia ranks second in the world
for digital piracy 18 Russian messaging service Telegram raised another $850mn with ICO 19
Southeast Europe
Russia's HeadHunter Group seeks
to raise $250mn with NASDAQ IPO 20
The Regions This Month 21
Filip Brokes in St Petersburg
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Ilmars Rimsevics, was accused of demanding bribes. He denied the allegations and suggested to the Financial Times that they had been orches- trated by banks keen to oust him after he tried to make the banking sector more transparent.
In the aftermath of the ABLV affair, the Latvian authorities came under pressure to do more to clean up the country’s financial system. Progress has been made, but the process could be hin- dered by parliamentary representatives of the country’s 500,000 ethnic Russians, a quarter of the population, who are not persuaded of the need for further reforms. Some are concerned these would harm what they see as Latvia’s role as an economic link between Russia and the West.
Yet last month legislation prohibiting Latvian- registered banks from doing business with shell companies, unless they can prove they are le- gitimate businesses, came into force. The Riga authorities also aim substantially to reduce the proportion of foreign deposits in the banking sys- tem — currently over a third of the total — while non-resident banks have been told that they must review their business model. “Either they have to change their business methods or fold,” warned Latvia’s Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola.
The new head of Latvia’s anti-money launder-
ing agency, Ilze Znotina, has said she wants local banks to improve the quality of information on suspect transactions they send to the authority. Yet the agency also needs to up its game. A Reu- ters report said that 85 money laundering inves- tigations were launched last year despite Latvian banks filing nearly 18,000 suspicious transactions.
Whether Latvia can do enough to reassure its American ally is difficult to judge. But the focus on Latvia has also raised questions about the ECB’s level of oversight, particularly because there have been similar financial crime concerns about other small European jurisdictions such as Cyprus and Malta. While the ECB serves as a regulator of eurozone banks, it has no investigative powers, which are entrusted to member states.