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aiming to expand its digital services portfolio, such as acquisitions of Ticketland.ru and Cuture Services ticketing services, and YouDo freelance employment portal. MTS also reportedly considering buying Russia's leading online cinema ivi, but no details on the deal have yet followed. The strategy of digital expansion is justified, but its "efficiency will depend on the quality of acquired assets and entry prices, while large-scale investments are risky," Uralsib warns. The analysts are alarmed by the persistent risk of delisting MTS ADRs in New York, but confirm a Buy recommendation for the shares. MTS, an anchor asset of AFK Sistema multi-industry investment conglomerate, posted 14% year-on-year net profit growth for the first quarter of 2019. The bottom line was supported by organic growth, the consolidation of MTS Bank, and a real estate deal in Russia for an undisclosed amount. Previously in the fourth quarter MTS posted solid results in both Russian and Ukraine, and pleased the market with dividend guidance promising over 10% dividend yield.
The volume pirated content online in Russia increased by 10% in 2018, which made the slowest growth in recent years compared to 12% seen in 2017, Vedomosti daily reported on June 7 citing the estimates of Group IB presented at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). However, the share of pirated content on mobile devices increased to 31% from 23%, with the increase of pirate mobile traffic of 40% in absolute volumes, Piracy is actively being rooted out in Russia, the second biggest consumer of digital pirated content in the world with 20.6bn visits to pirate sites in 2017. In November 2018 Russian TV holdings, online streaming services, and largest content producers signed a landmark anti-piracy memorandum. The biggest achievement of the agreement is the commitment of internet major Yandex to remove links with pirated content from its search results. Russian rights holders and producers reportedly celebrated another major victory having forced online streaming platforms to start using the Nielsen database as a united system for recording the number of online views.
9.1.8 Telecoms sector news
The CEO of Intourist, Viktor Topolkaraev, said in 2019 the company expects to bring 300,000 foreign tourists to Russia, according to the website of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). According to him, the company's foreign clients invest about 10bn rubles in the country's
95 RUSSIA Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com