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The situation with the virus is clearly growing worse every day. In September, the infection rate was 10 percent higher than in August. But daily case numbers have still not reached the previous peak — seen on May 11, when Russia reported more than 11,600 new infections. Russia confirmed 9,400 new infections Friday. In Moscow, a new peak is even more distant. The capital recorded 2,700 new cases Friday, compared to its record high of almost 7,000 on May 9.
However, obtaining the real picture of Russia’s battle with the coronavirus is not straightforward, given serious doubts over the reliability of the figures. It’s easy to understand the problem by looking at a graph of daily infection rates in Russia and other countries.
2.2 Russian internet giants plan US IPOs
This unpredictable year could be set to end with something of a sensation for the Russian business world — not one, but two major Russian firms are planning U.S. IPOs in the coming months. After a series of juicy IPOs in the early 2010s, stock market launches have become something of a rarity for Russian companies in recent years, but the two tech giants — established online retailer Ozon and leading Russian streaming service ivi — are poised to make a big splash.
· The planned IPOs were initially reported by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, both citing unnamed banking sources. At the moment, we know more about Ozon’s planned listing, which the company subsequently confirmed. Russia’s first large online retailer is lining up a stock market float for either later this year or early 2021. Documents have already been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Ozon has enlisted Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as global coordinators for the listing.
· Ozon is expected to be valued between $3-5 billion. The last Russian company to launch in the U.S. was job search service HeadHunter, which secured a $650 million valuation in 2019.
· Ozon’s shareholders include Baring Vostok, whose founder Michael Calvey has been under arrest for more than a year, and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, founder of Sistema and ranked 65th on the Forbes list of richest Russians.
· The company has been looking at different ways to raise development capital for a while. Back in July 2019, The Bell reported (Rus) that Sberbank was interested in acquiring a large stake in the retailer. This summer, Reuters said (Rus) the bank was close to buying a 30 percent share of Ozon, at the same moment when Sber was winding down its plans to create a ‘Russian Amazon’ with Yandex.
8 RUSSIA Country Report November 2020 www.intellinews.com
