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bne Invest
April 26, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
Russia's largest grain freight operator RusTransCom postpones IPO
Russian rail operator RusTransCom, specialising in the transportation of grain, mineral fertilisers, and timber, has postponed its plans to hold an IPO, the company said in a statement.
Previously the company unveiled its plans to hold an IPO on the London Stock Exchange and hopes to raise $300mn, which would be the first IPO of a Russian company in almost two years on the LSE.
Since the beginning of 2019 there have been a number of deals carried out on the Russian equity market, after no deals since August 2018. How- ever, the postponement of the SPO of meat major Cherkizovo, and now the IPO of RusTransCom, brings the first slips to the trend.
While Cherkizovo reportedly could not raise enough bids at the price it set, RusTransCom claims
to have received “received several proposals regarding private equity transactions, which are better aligned with the Group’s development strategy,” the company said in a statement.
Molesto Investments of Konstantin Sintsov and Konstantin Zasov that together hold 95.7% in
the freight operator planned to offer part of their RusTransCom shares. RusTransKom has put two independent directors on the board ahead of the IPO - Marcus Rhoads (formerly Ernst & Young) and Will Ebott (BoA Merrill Lynch, Renaissance Capital, VTB Capital, Deutsche Bank/UFG).
Net profit of Russian internet major Mail.ru drops 47% in 1Q19
Russian internet major Mail.ru reported net profit drop of 47% year-on-year to RUB1.6bn under IFRS, the company said on April 25.
Net income dropped due to lower Ebitda and emerged interest expense, BCS Global Markets commented, reminding that Mail.ru took out debt due to significant M&A-related payments in 1Q19.
“The numbers came in weak on Ebitda; on revenue could have been better as well (though in line with consensus),” BCS GM noted, while reminding that Mail.ru warned of the possible weakness in Q1 due to shift of marketing costs to the start of the year. In the 2H19 Mail.ru expects both acceleration of rev- enue growth and moderation of costs (as in 2018).
Revenue was up 22% y/y in the reporting quarter driven by 19% increase in ad revenue (decelera- tion from 38% in 4Q18), 22% growth in games, 167% growth in Youla platform revenue (to RUB0.38bn and 2019 revenue target is RUB2bn versus RUB1.2bn in 2018), and 108% growth
in Delivery Club revenue (to RUB0.88bn).
Ebitda in the reporting period declined by 26% y/y due to higher marketing costs (+88%), and agent and partner fees (+42%). Excluding the Delivery Club food delivery service and Youla platform, rev- enue was up 18% (to RUB 18.9bn), Ebitda declined 10% (to RUB6.2bn), net profit declined 19% (to RUB3.96bn).