Page 23 - bne_newspaper_June_08_2018

Opinion
June 8, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
bne:Tech
May, 2018 www.intellinews.com @bneintellinews
Avast to enter London bourse in bid to raise up to $1bn Jaroslav Hroch in Prague
Avast, which owns the popular consumer antivirus company AVG, will apply to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in the hope of raising $200mn (CZK4.1bn) in primary proceeds from an IPO, the Czech-founded company announced on April 12.
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St Petersburg's start-up scene flourishes on high talent and low costs
Contents
Avast to enter London bourse
in bid to raise up to $1bn 1 Avast to enter London bourse in bid to raise up to $1bn 2 St Petersburg's start-up scene
flourishes on high talent and low costs 3 Romania entrepreneur aims to put home-grown UAV defence technology industry on the map 6
FinTech
Russia's mobile major MTS increases stake in Ozon to 16.7% 9
Blockchain
Romanian startups at the heart
of blockchain energy trading rally 10
Central Europe
Russian-Lithuanian startup Gosu.ai
raises $1.9mn from Russian and
French investors 13
Eurasia
Iran hit by cyber attack that left US
flag on screens 14 Iranian government set to block hugely popular Telegram messaging app 15 Iran's black market phone disconnection drive pushes up legal mobile imports 15
Eastern Europe
Internet catches up with TV on Russian
ad market 17 Sales of connected appliances jump
in Russia 17 Russia's HeadHunter Group seeks
to raise $250mn with NASDAQ IPO 18 Russia ranks second in the world
for digital piracy 18 Russian messaging service Telegram raised another $850mn with ICO 19
Southeast Europe
Russia's HeadHunter Group seeks
to raise $250mn with NASDAQ IPO 20
The Regions This Month 21
Filip Brokes in St Petersburg
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Iranian gas won’t easily reach Europe
In the energy sphere, there are major differences between the Russians and Iranians that are not at all easily solved. For instance, both look to the European market to increase gas and oil exports.
Iran is theoretically quite well positioned to take its share of the European gas market as the EU is worried about Russian gas export predominance on its markets. Iranian gas could be a very good tool to assuage European fears, but to export its gas Iran would, for instance, need access to Black Sea ports such as Batumi and Poti in Georgia. Or it might one day attempt to feed gas into the new Southern Gas Corridor set to run to Turkey from Azerbaijan via Georgia and onwards to Italy.
Russia has generally tried to push back against any other regional powers establishing them- selves on the Black Sea coast, but the Iranians have made a limited breakthrough there. In late 2016 it was agreed that the Iranians will construct oil-processing facilities near Georgia’s Black Sea city of Supsa on a site of approximately 1.2 square kilometres.
But such successes should not be overestimated. Across the South Caucasus Russia and Turkey are well represented both militarily and economically. Russia successfully obstructs any Iranian moves to establish independent pipelines or rail routes to Armenia and Georgia and then there is the grow- ing number of Trump administration obstacles placed in the way of any foreign companies doing business with Iran. They may not be shifted any time soon.
Another area of latent disagreement in the South Caucasus is the simmering conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, run by ethnic Armenians but internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Back in the early 1990s,
the Iranian government made some unsuccess- ful attempts to mediate in the conflict. Since both Armenia and Azerbaijan border Iran it is quite nat- ural to expect Tehran to try to play a bigger role
in such efforts to resolve the stand-off. However,