Page 9 - bne_Magazine_July_2018

bne July 2018 The Month That Was I 9
Finance
Eastern Europe
Russia's leading bank state-controlled Sberbank confirmed a generous dividend payout of RUB271bn ($4.3bn) or 36% of IFRS net profit payout was approved and suggested it should be pri- vatised at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on June 8. The dividend payout is more than the 25% of profits the bank paid last year.
Sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg reportedly had $1bn of his funds in Swiss bank accounts frozen, as the banks feared punishment due to the new US sanctions.
Russia's internet services major Yan- dex approved a $100mn share buy- back programme, the company said on June 11 as cited by Interfax. The shares of Yandex in Moscow rose by 2% upon the news.
Bondholders of $545mn worth of bonds secured by 45% of Russian Standard bank (aka Russky Stan- dart) are demanding repayment ahead of schedule. Earlier this year the bank had offered a restructuring deal that was refused.
Standard & Poor's Global lowered its long-term issuer credit rating on Rus- sian real estate investment company O1 Properties to 'B-' from 'B' with negative outlook. The Moscow Exchange recently marked the bonds as in default. The company has now defaulted on three of its four bonds.
Online taxi booking service Gett said it raised another $80mn for opera- tions in Russia from Access Industries of Leonid Blavatnik, Baring Vostok, MCI, and Volkswagen Group among the inves- tors. The company said on June 7 the service is valued at $1.4bn, but it is still running at a loss in Russia.
Russia's state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) is likely to get a mandate of a pension fund, as
the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and the Finance Ministry try to decide how to mobilise pension savings of 36mn Rus- sians that are by default held by the VEB.
In April 2018 the average mortgage interest rate for housing in newly con- structed buildings for the first time declined below 9.5% to 9.43%. At the end of 2017 the government has adopted a program of subsidy-discounted mort- gages for large families that will bring the effective rate to below 6%.
St Petersburg smart delivery ser-
vice iGooods raised RUB123mn ($2mn) of new investment, the CEO of the company Gregory Kunis told Vedo- mosti daily on June 5. Among the investors are fund SOL Ventures of the founder of Delivery Club Levon Ogan- essyan and his partners, former partners of Quadriga Capital Russia Kristof, and
a number of other private investors.
The Russian banking sector is much stronger after the Central Bank of Russia's (CBR) drive to clean up the sector approaches its end, central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina said on June 2. The number of banks fell to 534 as of May 2018, just shy of the target of 300 banks president Vladimir Putin set several years ago.
Foreign investors have sold about RUB200bn ($3bn) worth of Russian domestic federal OFZ bonds since the beginning of April, following the latest round of US Treasury sanctions imposed on April 6. The share of foreign inves- tors in outstanding OFZs declined from record-high 34% earlier this year to 31%.
The National Bank of Belarus (NBB) has given the go ahead for a repre- sentative office of the China Devel- opment Bank to open in Minsk, the regulator said in a statement on June 7.
The Belarusian government is going to secure $500mn per year from
the European Bank for Reconstruc- tion and Development (EBRD), the nation's Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko told an EBRD delegation.
Central Europe
Shares of Hungarian logistics com- pany BILK Logistics were listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange. BILK Logistics is indirectly owned by Gyorgy Waberer, who sold his stake in the haul- age company that bears his name two years ago and is now concentrating on property investments.
Lithuania’s finance ministry issued new guidelines for initial coin offer- ings (ICOs). Finance Minister Vilius Šapoka stressed the country is one of the first in Europe to draw up comprehen- sive guidelines on the legal framework for ICO projects.
Southeast Europe
Albania launched procedures for
a third Eurobond issue aimed at refi- nancing the country’s external debt and reducing pressure on internal financial markets. Tirana is reportedly planning a five-year Eurobond issue of up
to €500mn.
Eurasia
Turnover on the Baku Stock Exchange rose to AZN2.3bn (€1.1bn) in May,
the highest value recorded this year.
A breakdown of the figures for May shows that the lion’s share of the turn- over was in the debt instruments market.
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