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June 2020 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
and the joint venture of internet major Mail.ru Group and Sberbank. In the meantime, traditional retailer X5 Retail Group has fast emerged as
the largest e-grocer, with its Magnit rival trying
to catch up with its digital transformation and testing delivery solutions.
Now Magnit has also started sourcing supplies for the dark stores of Yandex.Lavka in two Moscow districts.
Magnit doesn't have its own online sales platform, while X5's Perekrestok.ru said this week it would accelerate the roll-out of its online express delivery service Perekrestok.Express to 46 supermarkets, up from the current nine, to cover the whole of the Russian capital.
Romania plans to auction 5G licenses in Q4
Romania's telecom regulator ANCOM will adopt the documentation for a 5G tender in the third quarter of this year and estimates it will grant the licenses for the additional 5G spectrum in the fourth quarter of this year, according to ANCOM vice president Eduard Lovin quoted by Ziarul Financiar daily.
"We hope that we will grant licenses for the additional 5G spectrum in the fourth quarter of this year. We thought it was safer to postpone it until the end of this year. We want all the documentation to be adopted by the third quarter of this year," said Lovin during the ZF Cybersecurity Trends 2020 video conference.
Romania was among the first European countries to launch 5G applications last year.
"The 5G technology is already available in Romania because three out of four operators on the market have launched 5G services on the local market," added Lovin.
In related news, Hotnews.ro reported that the government had on its agenda for the May 21 meeting a memorandum for setting up an inter-
institutional 5G working group (committee) that will identify the necessary measures to ensure the security of 5G networks in Romania, under EU recommendations.
"The committee will continue to support
the implementation of the EU approach to cybersecurity in 5G networks in general, as well as to take specific initiatives on measures and objectives in the toolkit, where it can add value," according to the memorandum.
Russia's Rostelecom ups revenues 10%
in pre-COVID 1Q20
Russian state integrated telecom major Rostelecom reported a 10.3% year-on-year rise in revenues to RUB121.6bn ($1.7bn) under IFRS in 1Q20, still getting gains from the consolidation of the Tele2 mobile operator.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, in 2019 Rostelecom consolidated control in the "big four" mobile operator Tele2, while it remained the major recipient of B2G telecom and infrastructure contracts. Rostelecom is also in focus regarding the planned rollout of 5G in Russia.
In 1Q20 too, the B2B/G segment recorded revenues of RUB39bn ($551mn), up 25.8%, making it the key driver for the top-line growth, Sberbank CIB commented on May 20.
The company's Ebitda was up by 12.5% y/y to RUB47bn, with the margin improving 0.7pp
to 38.7%. Net income came in almost flat at RUB7.7bn. Notably, the revenues in digital services jumped 62.7% y/y to RUB12.5bn, mainly boosted by the promotion of cloud and data centre services and an increase in sales of cybersecurity services in the quarter.
The management plans to recommend a dividend of RUB5 per share for 2019, which is at the
lower end of the dividend policy and in line with Sberbank's expectations, while the company provided no updated guidance, including the effect