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Weekly Lists
May 19, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 25
bne:TMT
Russian-Chinese Investment Fund eyes stake in Yandex.Taxi
Russian payment system Qiwi posts strong first-quarter results, upgrades guidance
Ukrainian sanctions to affect expansion plans of Russian internet majors
The Russian-Chinese Investment Fund (RCIF) has applied to buy a stake in the Yandex.Taxi service of internet major Yandex, Vedomo- sti daily reported, citing the head of Russian Fund of Direct Invest- ment (PFPI) Kirill Dmitriev.
“We believe that news is positive for Yandex, as it could help Yandex. Taxi to accelerate expansion and defend its market share, while reducing cash burn,” Alfa Bank commented on May 17.
The bank noted an earlier Kommersant daily report that Yandex intends to raise $150-200mn for the minority stake in Yandex.Taxi, with JPMorgan organising the sale.
Russian electronic payment system Qiwi reported net revenue growth of 15.8% year-on-year to RUB2.9bn (€46.8mn) in the first quarter of 2017 and adjusted Ebitda of RUB1.5bn at a margin of 52.3%.
Revenues and earnings in the first quarter were 5% and 3% above the consensus expectations from Bloomberg survey, Renaissance Capital commented on May 17. Adjusted net income was up 3% y/y to RUB1.3bn, also beating the RUB1.1bn expectations.
Ukrainian sanctions imposed on Russian internet services majors Yandex and Mail.ru Group on May 15 will affect a significant part of their audience and to some extent limit expansion opportunities of the companies, according to analysts.
Ukrainian authorities extended the country's sanctions against Russia by blacklisting 1,228 individuals and 468 legal entities, which include popular Russian social media sites with millions of users like social network Vkontakte (VK), e-mail portals, software compa- nies and television stations.