Page 7 - bne_newspaper_June_01_2018

The Regions This Week
June 1, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eastern Europe
Ukraine's state-owned natural gas monopo-
ly Naftogaz appealed to Swiss courts seeking
to the enforce the recovery of $2.6bn debt from Russia's giant Gazprom following an award by the Stockholm arbitration court.
Sanctioned Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska's 66% stake in energy and metals major En+ needs to be cut to 40% before the US Department of Treasury (USTD) sanctions can be lifted.
Ratings of current mayor of Moscow Sergei Sob- yanin stand at 34% and are out of reach of other contenders for the elections slated for Septem- ber, who barely reach 1%, RBC business portal said citing the data of Levada-Center pollster.
The Ukrainian government excluded three state- owned companies from a list of large enter- prises for privatisation in 2018. The companies are aluminium foil plant, Agrarian Fund and State Food-Grain Corporation.
The Russian government is considering hik-
ing the VAT rate from 18% to 20% as part of the across the board effort to scrape together funds for President's Vladimir Putin's six-year RUB8 trillion spending package. Earlier the government suggested raising VAT to 22% but high oil prices have taken the pressure off the budget.
"The largest player in the history of the Russian insurance segment" will be created after state- controlled VTB Bank sells its insurance assets
to Sogaz, country's largest insurer. The deal will be closed in the third quarter of 2018 for an undis- closed amount.
Russia's leading bank, state-controlled Sber- bank will list Russia’s first Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) on the Moscow Exchange (MOEX),
the bank's asset management director Evgeny Zaytsev said. The first ETF in Russia will track the dynamics of MOEX indexes and include shares of 46 Russia's largest names.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin appointed Igor Shuvalov the head of the state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB). Shuvalov
is a heavyweight bureaucrat who has been Putin's economic deputy since 2008.
Russian mobile major MTS and Chinese internet group Alibaba will invest in the Russian online platform for freelance and self-employed work- ers YouDo. Both Alibaba and MTS intend to inte- grate YouDo in their existing online businesses.
Russia’s state-run gas giant Gazprom and Tur- key signed a protocol on a land-based part of the transit leg of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, due to supply Russian gas to European custom- ers, Gazprom said. Gazprom's management committee approved creating a joint project with Turkish Botas in September last year for the land section.
The EBRD is going to enter the capital of Ukraine's state-owned giant Oschadbank, the bank’s president Suma Chakrabarti said. The Ukrainian government intends to sell 20% of the bank's shares by late 2020 and place 25% of shares in an IPO in late 2022.
German car major Daimler could increase
its stake in Russian heavy vehicle produc-
er Kamaz from 15% to 19%, Kommersant daily reported. Kamaz boosted its IFRS net profit in 2017 five-fold year-on-year to RUB3.5bn ($55mn), beating company's own guidance of RUB1.2bn.
Russia's third biggest insurer RESO Garan-
tia postponed the IPO it was mulling since the beginning of 2018. The IPO was reportedly post- poned due to unfavourable market environment.
Billionaire and former presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov bought 39.4% in the Inter- national Financial Club (IFC) Bank under a put option from Cyprus-based Winterlux Limited con- trolled by sanctioned Viktor Vekselberg.