Page 9 - bne_Magazine_May_2018_print

bne May 2018 The Month That Was I 9
Finance
Eastern Europe
Russia’s messaging service Telegram raised $850mn in an initial coin offer- ing (ICO) launching its own cryptocur- rency Gram and blockchain platform TON. Founded by Russian digital entre- preneur Pavel Durov, who fled Russia and lives in self-imposed political
exile in London, this is the second ICO the company has held and has raised a total of $1.7bn.
Troubled Chinese private firm China Energy Company (CEFC) missed
the April 1 deadline to pay a €1.5bn instalment for a 14.16% stake in in Russia's largest oil company Rosneft, Vedomosti daily reported on April 3. The deal of acquiring 14.16% in Rosneft is still on the table, as CEFC has been given a ten day extension to make the first payment and in China a decision has reportedly been taken "at the highest level" to complete and finance the deal from quasi-state Chinese funds.
Russian real estate developer Samolet Group plans to hold an IPO on Moscow Exchange (MOEX) by the end of 2018 or 2019, Reuters said on April 4 citing unnamed market sources.
Russian IBS IT Services confirmed
its plans to hold an IPO on Moscow Exchange, which will consist in equal parts from existing shares and new issue, increasing the free-float after
the offering to 35%, the company said in a press-release on April 4. Previous reports put the valuation of the planned IPO at $100mn.
Russian human resources major HeadHunter Group plans to raise $250mn in an IPO on NASDAQ. The deal will be organised by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill Lynch, as well as domestic VTB Capital and Sberbank CIB. The company belongs to private equity fund Elbrus Capital, which bought it from Mail.ru for RUB10bn ($174mn) in 2016.
The head of Russian natural gas major Novatek Leonid Mikhelson acquired RUB100mn ($1.4mn) worth of shares of the company, increasing his stake from 0.718% to 0.723%, fol- lowing a slump in the share price during the current market sell off. Novatek also resumed its buyback program.
Russia’s largest airport holding Nova- port postponed its IPO plans to 2019 "at the earliest" the co-owner of the hold- ing Roman Trotsenko said. It is not clear whether the decision to postpone the offering is related to the latest round of US sanctions against Russia.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) will recapitalize troubled Russian banks Trust and Rost Bank, which will cost the regulator RUB1.1 trillion ($19bn). The CBR will create a “bad bank” based on Trust Bank, with all
the sound assets transferred to bail-out Financial Corporation Otkritie. Russia's ailing Promsvyazbank (PSB) will also get a total of over RUB240bn ($4bn)
in capital injections.
Russia's largest bank Sberbank con- tinued to post strong results in the first quarter, reporting 26% year-on- year earnings growth to RUB196bn under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), making a return on equity of 23%.
Unconfirmed reports claimed that Russia's second-largest bank VTB could pay over 60% in IFRS profit for 2017, with a payout to minority share- holders increasing almost three-fold.
Swiss-headquartered software major Luxoft announced it will spend up
to $60mn in a share buyback pro- gramme over the next two years.
Central Europe
Czech-founded anti-virus firm Avast will list its shares on the London Stock Exchange. The company, which owns the popular consumer antivirus
company AVG, hopes to raise $200mn in primary proceeds from an IPO.
Private equity investor Polish Enterprise Fund VII will buy Croa- tian baker and retailer Pan-Pek. The fund, managed by Enterprise Investors, signed an agreement to acquire a 65% stake in Pan-Pek.
Southeast Europe
The Albanian government plans to float state-owned electricity distribu- tion company OSHEE on the newly created stock exchange by the end of 2018. If the deal goes ahead, it will be the first ever IPO of shares in a major state-owned company in the country.
Montenegro successfully placed
a €500mn seven-year Eurobond issue at a favourable interest rate of 3.375%, the finance ministry said. The new Eurobond is aimed at refinancing previous bond issues amounting to €362mn that are due to be paid in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Turnover on the Macedonian Stock Exchange (MSE) turned to strong growth in March, reaching a value of MKD3.48mn (€56.6mn) from MKD357.6mn a month earlier, MSE data indicated. The turnover took
a positive turn in March as the value of block transactions increased significantly, including transactions in Komercijalna Banka shares.
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