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The Regions This Week
September 28, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Eastern Europe
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is re- portedly asking for £3bn for his UK Premier League football club Chelsea, having already declined a $2.3bn bid, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin pledged to self-finance the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if foreign investors in the project are targeted by US sanctions, during his August visit to Germany, RBC business portal said citing an unconfirmed report by Süddeutsche Zeitung.
An IMF mission left Ukraine without announcing a deal on new aid but a top central bank offi-
cial said he expected an agreement "in the near future" that would help preserve financial stability during 2019, an election year. Analysts had been expecting a deal to be struck that would allow the release of the next $1.9bn tranche of aid.
Russia's largest carmaker Avtovaz will delist its shares and go private, according to the head of state technology agency and Avtovaz shareholder Rostec, Sergei Chemezov. The deal is moving into its final stages, Chemezov added.
The Ukrainian banking sector made a net profit of UAH13.8bn ($490mn) in January-August, ac- cording to the National Bank of Ukraine. The 2018 results were mainly attributed to the fact that retail lending and fee and commission income continued to drive operating income.
The number of Russians willing to protest the passing of the unpopular pension reform and the hiking of the retirement age dropped consid-
erably from 53% in August to 35% in September, according to pollster Levada Center.
The US Treasury Department pushed back the deadline for investors to pull out of debt and equity of Russian aluminium major Rusal and
its parent company En+ to November 12 from
the previous October 23. The initial deadlines
for cutting ties with the company were extended several times after the sanctions sent shockwaves through global aluminium supply chains.
Russia’s finance ministry plans to borrow RUB1.5 trillion ($22.8bn) next year to fund the budget and the government’s expanding invest- ment programme, according to the draft budget for 2019. But fleeing foreign investors mean esti- mates of the money available on the market fall short by RUB500bn.
The Belarusian authorities urged Russia to restructure a $10bn loan provided earlier for the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant and consider the possibility of reducing the interest rate on the loan, the nation's president told an emergency government meeting.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is set
to divest the Kuznia na Rybalskomu shipyard
in Kyiv, controlled by the Prime Assets Capital fund, which manages his assets. The fund “has informed that it has arrived at a framework agree- ment on the sale of the Kuznia na Rybalskomu shipyard to a national buyer,” wrote according to Poroshenko's spokesman Sviatoslav Tseholko on his official Facebook page.
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