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Eastern Europe
March 8, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
Alfa Bank reports earnings up by two thirds in 2018 IFRS results
ABH Financial, the holding com- pany of Alfa Bank, released strong 2018 IFRS results on February 28 and the bank's management
held a conference call.
Earnings came in at $1.32bn for the full year (up 66%) amid notable growth in retail lending, which kept the net interest margin stable de- spite high competition in the cor- porate lending segment, the bank's traditional strong suit. In addition, the bank showed good fee income growth and cost control. ROAE rose to 19.6% for 2018 from 13.2% for 2017, VTB Capital said in a note. →
Russia's consumer confidence plunges as business confidence improves
Russian President Vladimir Putin is right to be concerned about rising discontent amongst ordinary Russians. The economy is growing again and both banks and the leading corporates have returned to profit but that is not trickling down as a “feel good” factor to street level. Russia’s consumer confidence in the last quarter
of 2018 fell to 17% in Rosstat’s quarterly survey – back to the levels seen during the “silent crisis” years of 2015-2016. →
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Russia's goods trade surplus up 20% in 2018 to $212bn
Russian customs reports that in 2018 the country’s goods trade surplus climbed to $212bn, or roughly 12% of GDP. Russia is now running a triple surplus again for the first time in years: trade, current account and fed- eral budget. Both the budget and the current account surpluses are at record levels. The record trade surplus was driven partly by the rise in oil prices in 2018, but falling imports, especially falling food imports, played at least as important a role. →
Russian internet major Mail.ru posts solid 4Q18 ahead of Alibaba deal
Russian internet major Mail.
ru reported 34% year-on-
year increase in revenues to RUB23.4bn ($356mn) in the fourth quarter of 2018, with Ebitda
at 42% growth to RUB8.7bn in line with company's own guid- ance and market expectations. →
Russian mobile phone company MTS' earnings up by a third in 4Q18, outlook for 2019 good
Russia’s leading mobile phone company Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) reported earnings up by a third (34%) y/y in the fourth quarter of 2018 and management guided for more growth in 2019, the company said on February 28. “The results came in line with consensus on revenue and Ebitda (if adj. for UMA consolidation), and the company delivered on its FY 2018 guidance. Expectations for 2019 look good, with our forecasts (and Bloomberg consensus) falling in the middle of the guided range for revenues and Ebitda (excl IFRS 16 impact),” BCS Global Markets said in a note. →
Russian metals major NLMK could pay over 100% FCF dividend
Russian metals and steel major Novolipetsk Metallurgical Kombi- nat (NLMK) hosted a capital mar- kets day on March 4 during which the company reiterated its steel volume growth targets, updated its capex program and Ebitda targets, and upgraded the dividend policy.
NLMK has already been one of the top 15 dividend payers among Russian blue chips. Now the company has updated its dividend policy to smooth out dividend payments during the period
of higher capex, like its peer Severstal has done, Sberbank CIB commented on March 5. →