Page 14 - bne_Tech_05_2019

Leaders
May 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 14
Moldova’s banking sector turning the corner
Moldova has long been a money-laundering black hole. Then in 2014 they had a shock when more than $1bn was stolen from the bank sector – equivalent to 15% of GDP.
Belatedly the government is now responding. Stakes in three of the country's biggest banks, which together account for about 80% of the sector’s assets, have been sold to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and private investors and the central bank has been given real teeth to enforce regulations.
bne IntelliNews editor-in-chief Ben Aris talks
to special advisor to the president and head
of strategic planning at Moldova-Agroindbank (MAIB) Corneliu Munteanu and asks if Moldova’s banking sector has turned the corner.
Corneliu Munteanu
special advisor to the president of Moldova, head of strategic planning at MAIB
LISTEN
SUBSCRIBE (FREE)
bne Podcasts
On April 23 Vedomosti daily reproted that Sberbank officially registered the Sber trademark, in addition to buying domains sber.ru.
Rambler was formed in 2013 as tycoons Mamut and Vladimir Potanin joined their video assets. The holding includes online and traditional cinemas, anchor portal Ramble.ru, a number of popular internet publications and portals such as Lenta.ru, Gazeta.ru, Afisha, and others. In 2016 Mamut bought out Potanin’s stake for about $295mn.
"We see little strategic synergy in acquisition, given company’s weak competitive position. Still, Rambler is a relatively small business," BCS Global Markets commented on April 22.
Online media assets are in focus as recently
one of Russia's "big four" operators MobileTeleSystems (MTS) is considering the acquisition of “the Russian Netflix,” online cinema provider ivi, the market leader with a 36% share, for RUB20bn ($309mn).
Russia’s media market in general is growing fast, driven by the burgeoning e-commerce sector. The media market expanded by 12% y/y to RUB468.7bn in 2018, according to estimates from the Association of Russian Advertisers (AKAR), VTB Capital (VTBC) said in a note on March 11.
The internet services segment showed the fastest growth (+22% y/y) in FY18 (out of the major segments) and accounted for 38% of the market (vs. 35% in 2017).