Page 8 - bne_Magazine_May_2017_print

8 I The Month That Was bne May 2017
Business
Central Europe
Czech drinks group Karlovarske mineralni vody, the largest producer
of bottled mineral and spring water in Central Europe, is buying Quadrant Beverages, the official bottler of PepsiCo in Bulgaria.
The Latvian gas market was fully lib- eralised on April 3 following the entry into force of a number of legal changes. Riga has fought hard to end control of the gas transmission and storage infra- structure by Russia-controlled monopo- list Latvijas Gaze.
A regional court in Brno banned Uber from the Czech Republic’s second fol- lowing a complaint lodged by a local taxi company. Brno City Hall backed the decision, insisting that Uber has to oper- ate in line with the laws regarding taxi companies.
The D1 Presov Consortium signed a deal with Slovakia to build a section of the D1 motorway. The Czech and Slovak units of Eurovia and Metrostav teamed up with Doprastav to complete the €356mn project to build 8km of the major artery.
The Czech state will buy the insolvent coal miner OKD for CZK80mn (€3mn) through a Ministry of Finance vehicle. The ruling Social Democrats and their coalition partners, the populist Ano party led by Finance Minister Andrej Babis, have been squabbling since OKD was declared insolvent in May 2016 over whose ministry would be used to finance the wind-down of the miner’s activities.
Southern Europe
Turkey’s Global Ports Holding announced plans for a $250mn IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The largest international operator of cruise ports, Global will use most of the proceeds acquire and develop new ports.
Bulgaria’s caretaker cabinet cancelled the concession procedure for Bulgaria’s Sofia Airport. According to the Bulgarian transport ministry, the main obstacle is the ongoing process to award a concession for nearby Belgrade airport which has attract- ed a high level of international interest.
Romania’s RCS & RDS will hold an
IPO in May. The value of the diversi- fied telecom company is estimated by €1.5bn-2bn, with the IPO expected to be €500mn-600mn.
Eastern Europe
VTB’s Thalita holding company has sold a 25% stake in St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport to a consortium for an estimated $250mn. The investors pooled by Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) included Mubadala Devel- opment Company, other leading Middle Eastern and Asian co-investors, and Baring Vostok Private Equity Fund.
Russian state oil major Rosneft said it will pay only 35% of net IFRS profit in dividends for 2016, as it did the previous year, in direct defiance of government orders for a 50% payout by state companies.
The US Treasury Department has refused a request from oil major ExxonMobil for a waiver from Rus- sian sanctions in order to resume joint ventures with Kremlin-controlled oil major Rosneft.
Twitter will comply with a controversial Russian law on personal data storage and transfer its Russian users’ data to servers inside the country by mid-2018.
Mobile Internet traffic in Russia year- to-year grew by half (48%) in 2016
to some 3.8bn GB, according to the ministry of communications. This traffic is about seven times less than on fixed networks; however, mobile data traffic is growing much faster. In 2016, traffic on fixed line connections increased by a more modest 15% y/y.
Corruption in Ukraine is worse now than it was under former president Victor Yanukovych, who was ousted three years ago, according to a new report published by EY. Ukraine was ranked the lowest among all countries participating in the biennial EY EMEIA Fraud Survey, fol- lowed by Cyprus and Greece. Russia was ranked in 16th place by EY, up two slots since two years ago, with 66% of respon- dents saying they encountered corruption in the country’s business environment.
Eurasia
Iranian steelmakers exported more than 5.38mn tonnes of crude steel and steel products in the last Iranian year (ended March 20), marking 29% growth y/y. The European Commission Com- mission in March opted against imposing duties on hot-rolled steel imports from Iran and four other countries in response to dumping allegations.
Kazakhstan will put 280 companies up for sale in 2017 and 84 in 2018 and aim for a full or partial sell-off of 1,008 com- panies under its privatisation plans until 2020. The Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund aims to invest KZT121bn (€362mn) into its portfolio of compa- nies in 2017 and a total of KZT273bn by 2021, the fund said in a statement.
Azerbaijan's SilkWay Holdings signed a deal to purchase 10 Boeing-737 MAX aircraft for approximately $1bn. Silk- Way Airlines, owned by the Azerbaijani president's family, is expected to open flights to Chicago and Dhaka.
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