Page 9 - bne_Magazine_April_2018

bne April 2018 The Month That Was I 9
Finance
Eastern Europe
Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom placed €750mn worth of eight-year Eurobonds in London with demand exceeding supply three-fold. Embarrass- ingly the placement reportedly took place at the same time as the UK Prime Minister Theresa May was condemn- ing alleged Russian involvement in the poisoning of ex-spy on British soil in a speech to parliament. Russia's Ministry of Finance followed through a few days later with a $4bn Eurobonds issue.
IPSCO, the US division of Russian steel pipe maker TMK, has restarted an IPO offer in New York, Reuters said on March 12. Previously TMK cancelled the IPO due to bad market conditions and rising sanction pressure from the US. Under the previously announced parameters TMK could raise from $316mn to $363mn.
The SPO of Russian children's goods retailer Detsky Mir has been scrapped, RNS said citing unnamed sources.
The settlement between Russian oil major Rosneft and Detsky Mir's major shareholder AFK Sistema investment conglomerate has given Sistema better visibility on its funding needs.
Another RUB57bn ($1bn) will be poured into Russia’s troubled Binbank (aka B&N Bank) by the Central Bank
of Russia to cover a capital hole. The negative capital of the bank is currently estimated at RUB37bn.
The supervisory board of Moscow Exchange (Moex) recommended pay- ing RUB18.1bn ($317mn) in dividends for 2017, making 89% of net profit for last year, according to the announce- ment by the bourse. Moex reported net profit of RUB4.8bn for the fourth quar- ter of 2018, beating consensus expecta- tions by 5% on the back of higher fees and commission income.
Russia's state-controlled Sberbank posted 37% year-on-year growth of earnings to RUB63.8bn ($1.1bn) mak-
ing a 24% return on equity (ROE) in February, under RAS (Russian Account- ing Standard) standalone results. For two months of 2018 net income gained 23% y/y to RUB129bn with 23% ROE.
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, appointed Yakiv Smolii as the central bank's head, replacing Vale- ria Gontareva. The move followed the resignation of Gontareva, a reformer highly respected by Ukraine's donors, 11 months ago. Gontareva, who is a close business associate of President Petro Poroshenko, has led the central bank since June 2014.
Southeast Europe
Robotic process automation company
UiPath, founded by two Romanian entrepreneurs, raised $153mn from
a group of international venture capital investors. The funding will be used to accelerate product development, includ- ing by expanding collaboration with arti- ficial intelligence (AI) solutions, as well as to invest heavily into global expansion.
dubbed “A billion for reconstruction” is aimed at mobilising substantial capital for road infrastructure, educational and health projects in the country.
Eurasia
Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna reportedly offered Royal Dutch Shell the chance to buy a 10-20% stake in state-run oil company National Company KazMunayGaz (NC KMG). Such a transaction would make the planned IPO of NC KMG in 2019 more attractive to foreign investors.
Kazakhstan’s recently launched Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) expects the government to issue Islamic bonds, or Sukuk, within months. There have been official hints the issuance could amount to $300mn overall in 2018. Kazakhstan also plans to develop rules for Islamic insurers and a fund for Islamic endowments.
Huge queues of Iranians were lining
up before dawn in Tehran’s Ferdowsi Square – centre of Iran’s foreign curren- cy trading – as they sought to get their hands on hard currency in advance
of the upcoming Persian New Year holidays. Anxiety grew about the appar- ent evaporation of much of the country’s dollar supply after central bank and police action against informal market money traders after a sharp devaluation of the rial. Several dealers have been officially designated to sell the dollar
at a fixed rate of IRR44,600.
The Azerbaijani government finished taking over $2.2bn worth of external debt owned by Azerbaijan’s largest bank, International Bank of Azerbai- jan (IBA). State-owned IBA defaulted on $3.3bn worth of foreign obligations in May 2017, prompting a debt restruc- turing process that saw its obliga-
tions swapped for dollar bonds issued by IBA and the government.
The European Commission said the privatisation of Slovenia's largest lend- er NLB is essential to prevent possible future credit misallocation and ensure its long-term viability. Slovenia had pledged to privatise the bank as a condition for
a 2013 liquidity injection, but scrapped a planned IPO last June amid a dispute over the pricing of the offer.
An IMF official advised the Albanian government to suspend its ambitious €1bn PPP project due to concerns over increased debt. The national programme
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