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The Regions This Week
April 12, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Eastern Europe
Russia's leading job searching service Head- Hunter is preparing a $250mn IPO in May-June 2019 on NASDAQ, Vedomosti daily reported citing unnamed investment bankers and sources close to the shareholders of the company.
US fund manager Michael Calvey was released from pre-trial detention in Russia by Moscow’s Basmanny Court and placed under house ar- rest. Russia’s most famous fund manager Calvey and several of his colleagues from Baring Vostok Capital Partners (BVCP) were arrested after the Federal Security Service (FSB) opened an investi- gation into the fund.
Ukraine has lost its dispute in the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Russia's restrictive measures on the transit transportation of mer- chandise by road and rail, introduced in 2014- 2016. According to a WTO special panel, Russia did not violate WTO rules by limiting the transit of Ukrainian goods through its territory.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the share capital of Russian non-financial sector com- panies declined by $6.5bn in 2018 (outflow of $22.4bn versus inflow of $15.9bn), the lowest in- dicator since 1997, according to the data from the Central Bank of Russia cited by the RBC business daily. The inflow of $15.9bn in the capital of Rus- sian companies was 2.5-fold below the average over the past ten years, the CBR estimated.
Russia’s policy of import substitution has made little progress in recent years as in 60% of cases there is no local analogue of sufficient quality
to replace goods imported from other markets,
a study by the Gaidar Institute cited by Kommer- sant shows.
Ukraine's economy grew by 1.2% year-on-year
with possible adjustment of plus or minus 0.2 percentage points (pp) in January-February, ac- cording to the economy ministry. The IMF has kept unchanged its forecast for Ukraine's GDP growth
in 2019 and 2020 at 2.7% year-on-year and 3% y/y respectively.
Prices for luxury apartments in Moscow hit
a three-year high. The average price per square metre on the primary market for premium apartments in Moscow in the first quarter of 2019 amounted to RUB815,000, or 12% more than a year ago, says Knight Frank. But luxury prices were up by 22% to RUB1.06mn per square metre.
Russian online retailer Wildberries posted 85% year-on-year growth in revenues in the first quarter of 2019 to RUB38.9bn ($603mn), with the number of unique users up by 89%.
Production of vehicles in Ukraine decreased by 15.6% year-on-year to 1,741 units in January- March, according to preliminary data collected
by the Ukrautoprom production association. The output of passenger cars declined by 14.7% y/y to 1,508 (all at the Eurocar plant) in January-March. The main decline in production was recorded in commercial vehicles production.
Kyivstar, the largest mobile communications operator in Ukraine, built an LTE network covering 4,587 localities where 58% of the Ukrainian population live within a year of receiving its 4G license.
Russia’s diamond monopoly and investors’ darling Alrosa reported slower than usual rough diamond sales of $369mn in March, down 33% y/y and also 32% below historical average for the month, VTB Capital (VTBC) said in a note.
In 1Q19, Russia’s current account surplus totalled $32.8bn, up from $30bn seen in 1Q18, according to the preliminary estimate of the balance of payments published by the CBR on April 9. The strong results is actually a sign of economic weakness as the fall in imports was bigger than the rise in exports.