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Aeroflot , will acquire up to 30 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets for an estimated $1.7bn-$1.95bn , Vedomosti daily said on July 30. Pobeda's fleet of 20 Boeing jets will be extended by another four new jets by the end of 2018, with another six airliners to be supplied in the first half of 2019. Most recently Boeing said it will spend $27bn on direct purchases in Russia in the next 20 years, out of which $18bn will go on titanium purchases. In April the Russian government decided to leave Boeing and Airbus out of the counter-sanctions revised by the parliament so as not to include any limitations on exports of titanium. Previous reports indicated that Pobeda ordered 15 jets from Boeing, but the orders could be extended to 30. Pobeda is Russia's sixth largest airline in terms of passenger turnover with 3.18mn people in January-June 2018 (total market of 44.9mn passengers). Russian airline UTair ordered 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets in April 2018 , to be delivered from 2019 to 2025. At the cost of about $1.76bn would make the largest order of Airbus or Boeing jets by a Russian carrier at the time, but Pobeda's order could now beat that. Pobeda's other competitor S7 Group also recently ordered 37 jets, including 10 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 27 Airbus 320/321 neo. S7 also placed an order for 100 SSJ100 Russian-made “super jets” in the first large commercial order for the medium-range passenger jet.
The Ministry of Transport has supported Vitaly Saveliev as CEO of
Aeroflot for the next five year (his current contract expires in October) and suggested him to the Ministry for the Economy, according to Interfax, citing Transport Minister Evgeny Ditrikh. MinEconomy has to send a formal suggestion before the current contract with the CEO expires.
Russian national air carrier Aeroflot Group posted a passenger turnover increase of 9.4% year-on-year to 13.2bn in June , with both domestic and international flights showing positive dynamics. The flagship Aeroflot airline posted a 7.2% traffic increase in June, with the number of passengers carried within the country up 11.3% y/y to about 1.6mn people and the number of foreign travellers up 8% to around 1.6mn. "We believe this is mainly attributable to the World Cup, during which fans flew between the cities where the games were played," Sberbank CIB commented on July 23.
9.2.4 Construction & Real estate corporate news
One of the leading Russian real estate developers, Etalon Group , will sell a stake owned by its founder Vyacheslav Zarenkov to the top management . No other details have been disclosed currently. Etalon recently posted strong second-quarter results , along with other market leaders . Major developers such as Etalon, PIK , and LSR Group (LSR) are set to benefit from the ongoing regulatory changes in the sector that will limit the pre-sale of housing under share agreements, giving the upper hand to large companies with access to financing sources . Etalon's management currently owns a 2.6% stake while 61% is in free float and the remaining 36.4% is owned by Baring Vostok Funds (5.7%) and by Zarenkov and his family (30.7%). "The sale [of the shares] should increase the motivation of the management to achieve strong results and improve the market capitalisation," BCS Global Markets commented on July 27, seeing the deal as in line with the interests of portfolio investors. "We regard the step as neutral near-term and positive longer-term, because management will be more motivated to increase Etalon's equity
75 RUSSIA Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com