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The Regions This Week
November 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eastern Europe
Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft could start delivering oil to China’s CITIC Resources (a sub- sidiary of the Chinese government fund CITIC) under a five-year contract with another five-year prolongation option, Vedomosti daily reported.
The contract for 10mn metric tonnes annually would replace the deal with another major Chinese buyer CEFC after it defaulted on previous contracts and pulled out of the much vaulted privatisation deal to buy a stake in Rosneft.
The State Property Fund (SPF) has scheduled the
privatisation auction for a state-owned 78.289% stake in Ukraine’s Centrenergo, the country’s leading power generating company. The starting price for the stake is UAH5.98bn ($210mn). The Ukrainian authorities will attempt to privatise the company in late November or early December.
Amid ongoing concerns over high gasoline prices
Russian oil companies agreed to lower the wholesale gasoline and diesel prices and then freeze them until the end of 2018. Next year price growth will be indexed at the rate of inflation. Fearing popular discontent the state has effec- tively imposed price controls on the cost of a tank of gas.
In autumn Russian retail prices for sugar jumped by over 50% in some federal districts, RBC business portal said citing materials from the Ministry of Agriculture. Since the beginning of 2018, the price in some districts has risen by 44%.
Ukraine saw its current account deficit balloon this year as its terms of trade deteriorate. The current account deficit rose to $3.9bn in January- September compared to a $1.5bn deficit during the same period a year ago, according to the Na- tional Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
Ukraine and Belarus could "easily" double their trade turnover to $10bn, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during a forum in Gomel. According to Poroshenko, Belarus is a strategic
trade partner for Ukraine, namely the fifth larg- est trade partners in the world. Trade turnover in 2018 is expect to be $4.5bn-$4.6bn.
Russia's most valuable digital company Yandex might reshuffle its shareholding structure shift- ing 60% of the voting power to a fund controlled by Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh and other top man- agers with Russian citizenship, Kommersant daily reported citing unnamed sources.
Russian second-tier retailer Lenta launched
a 12-month GDR buyout programme worth RUB11.6bn ($177mn) or about of 10% of its free- float. The buyout on the LSE will be managed by Credit Suisse.
As expected Fitch affirmed its rating on Ukraine at B- with stable outlook citing weak external liquidity amid high external financing require- ments. The agency also outlined structural and institutional constraints coupled with geopolitical and political risks. Among credit positive factors Fitch mentioned improving policy credibility and macroeconomic stability, declining government debt and a track record of bilateral and multilat- eral support.
Russian electronics retailer Eldorado plans to rebrand into a more affordable "cash and carry" type store, Vedomosti daily reported citing mar- keting director Vasily Bolshakov. Eldorado was re- cently merged with M.Video, both companies are controlled by Russian Safmar Group of billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev.
The EBRD will provide a senior long-term loan of up to €15mn to I&U Group, a vertically in- tegrated agricultural holding engaged in crop farming and sugar production in Ukraine. The funds will be used to finance the development, construction and operation of a 6 MW biogas plant located in the Kirovograd region of central Ukraine.