Page 9 - bne_November 2018_20181105

bne November 2018 The Month That Was I 9
Finance
Eastern Europe
The head of Russia's largest oil com- pany Rosneft, Igor Sechin, has post- poned a share buyback until at least the end of this year, Ria Novosti and Tass cited the oil boss saying on October 17. The shares of Rosneft fell by 0.4% following the announcement, while the Moscow Exchange index grew by 1.5% at the same time.
Russia's state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) could double its loan portfolio from current RUB3 trillion ($46bn) in the next five years, the newly appointed head of the bank Igor Shuvalov told President Vladimir Putin on October 16. VEB, which was
on the brink of default in 2015-2016 overburdened by loans issued for Sochi Olympics construction and hit by sanc- tions, has been slated by the Kremlin to become one of the main hubs of infra- structure spending after an appointment of Shuvalov.
Uber Technologies could hold an IPO in 2019. The company has been valued at $120bn by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which is double current valu- ation and exceeds the value of General Motors, Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles combined, according to the Wall Street Journal citing unnamed sources. In one of the biggest deals in the Russian tech sector in 2017, Uber and Yandex.Taxi of internet services major Yandex formed a joined venture in Russia and five other countries (Armenia, Azer- baijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan).
Shares of Russia's largest port and stevedore group Novorossiysk Com-
mercial Sea Port (NCSP) jumped by 7% on October 9 on Transneft buyout talks pushing on the capitalisation to RUB133bn. The investors reacted to a possible minority shareholder buyout offer by the new controlling share- holder Transneft. State oil pipeline monopoly Transneft consolidated its stake in NCSP to over 60%, acquiring 25% in joint venture with Summa Group of jailed Kremlin-connected oligarch Ziyavudin Magomedov.
Russia's state-controlled VTB Bank and the government agreed at a meeting to try and persuade President Vladimir Putin to postpone the central bank's implementation of Basel III capital standards scheduled for January 2019, Bloomberg and RBC business portal reported citing unnamed sources. VTB's head Andrei Kostin urged the Kremlin to intervene amid increased sanctions risks as they could compromise dividends.
The sovereign Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is to set
up a regional fund worth CNY5bn ($721mn) together with Chinese counterparts, the head of the fund Kirill Dmitriev told Tass on October 9, adding that first transactions in national curren- cies are expected in early 2019.
Central Europe
Latvia began investigating a number of local banks for possible servicing of a Turkish company SIA Falcon Group, which the US authorities sanctioned for attempts to supply North Korea with weapons and luxury goods. It is not
clear how many or which banks exactly serviced SIA Falcon Group, which had an office in Riga.
Southeast Europe
Shares in a little-known Turkish state- owned development bank clocked up a gain of 863% since Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said on Septem-
ber 20 that the lender is to be restruc- tured with an expanded mandate. Exactly how Turkiye Kalkinma Bankasi will be used to bolster growth amid Turkey’s economic turmoil is not yet clear.
Moscow-based International Investment Bank successfully closed the order book for a new bond issue on the Romanian stock exchange. The issue, structured in two tranches, in the Romanian leu and euro, is the fourth one in a row for the IIB and the largest one in terms of volume on the Romanian market.
Slovenian banking group Nova Lju- bljanska banka NLB will proceed with an IPO on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. The Slovenian government is required to privatise the bank by the end of this year under its commitments to the European Commission.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his Justice and Development Par- ty (AKP) will introduce a bill in parliament switching the main opposition party’s shares in Turkey’s largest listed lender, Isbank, to the treasury. The Republi- can People’s Party holds a 28% stake in Isbank, bequeathed to it by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic.
Eurasia
The EBRD will provide six loans worth €333mn to Uzbekistan for the development of sustainable solutions for the municipal and power infrastructure sectors. Uzbekistan, a nation of 33mn people, has been suffering for decades from underinvestment in public utilities, including in district heating along with water and wastewater infrastructure.
Two Azerbaijani food companies were accepted for listing on the Baku Stock Exchange. Cheese producer Imisli- Yag-Pendir JSC and Mingecevir Baliq (Mingecevir Fish) will be listed in the bourse’s alternative market segment.
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