Page 14 - bne_newspaper_February_22_2019

bne Invest
February 22, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 14
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.
See page 2
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
See page 3
GET THE BEST CONTENT DELIVERED STRAIGHT INTO YOUR INBOX!
SIGN UP HERE
bne Tech
We have launched a new publication bneTech
A FREE newsletter covering technology, blockchain, ICOs, TMT and all aspects of the "new economy" in Emerging Europe, Central Asia and MENA.
*Please note by clicking the button you give permission for bne to send you e-mails as per the EU's GDPR rules.
SIGN UP HERE
Bank (OEB, aka Vostochniy bank). Barings is argu- ing with its Russian partner and minority share- holder in the bank Artem Avetisyan in a case that has been sent to an arbitration court in London. The dispute is over the valuation of shares follow- ing a recapitalisation in 2018. The Russian press
is reporting that Avetisyan has ties to the Federal Security Service (FSB), which has accused BVCP of fraud and embezzlement. The consensus in Mos- cow is the affair remains a corporate dispute and has not been tied to the Kremlin nor the threat by the US to impose new sanctions on Russia.
Investors were more interested in the 2.6% gain
in the price of oil at the end of last week which is trading at $66.09 on February 18, well ahead of the $56 average price in January and well above the current $49 that the Russian federal budget needs to break even. All-in-all the price of oil is up 23% YTD, according to Sberbank, which is attributable to easing concerns of market oversupply on the back of the OPEC+ deal production cut deal.
In the Russian market, oil and gas names out- performed. Tatneft was up 4%, while gas giant Gazprom and independent gas producer Novatek gained 3% apiece.
The main affect of the news of Calvey’s detention was to hit the shares of Yandex, which dropped 8.5% on the news. Calvey’s most famous invest- ment was to invest some $5mn into the Russian internet search engine shortly after it was founded, only to see the stake become worth billions of dol- lars when the company eventually IPO’d in London 2011. However, Barings exited its investment in 2016 and no longer owns shares in Yandex. Ana- lysts believe the share price will quickly bounce back and it is one of a handful of stocks that has regained its pre-Crimea valuation in the last year.