Page 12 - BNE_magazine_06_2020 Growers

12 I Companies & Markets bne June 2020
Russia remains a key market for the company but it has
not been big enough to go it alone and has teamed up with Russia’s internet powerhouse, Yandex, the most valuable tech company in Europe.
Yandex NV, Russia’s largest search engine, bought local food-delivery firm Foodfox to expand its tie-up with Uber Technologies Inc. in 2017 and the partners have been investing heavily in recent years to maintain their market share.
Uber agreed in July 2017 to merge its taxi business in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with Yandex.Taxi into a $3.7bn joint venture to be controlled by the Russian company, as it battles across the globe with local car-sharing and food-delivery startups. The deal, approved by the Russian antitrust service, included Uber Eats, a spinoff of the taxi business.
Mongolia scraps $3bn IPO for shares in flagship coal mine
bne IntelliNews
Mongolia has scrapped plans to sell up to $3bn of shares in the country's flagship coal mine in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO).
Statements from officials previously indicated that the long- planned offering for around 30% of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi in the Gobi Desert would take place before legislative elections scheduled for late June. But a combination of political campaign considerations and the disruption on international financial markets caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic appear to have caused the shelving of the plan.
The coronavirus turmoil has led to the cancellation of a string of planned Hong Kong stock market IPOs. At the same time, the intended Tavan Tolgoi listing – which was also to involve share sales on the London Stock Exchange and the Mongolian Stock Exchange – seems to have been partly derailed by
the heated pre-election political environment in Mongolia. Mongolians are often suspicious of potential corruption or exploitation of the country's resources when it comes to foreign interests buying into their country’s natural assets. Such concerns have continuously put a brake on Tavan Tolgoi's development.
www.bne.eu
The venture’s food delivery division will be headed by Foodfox founders Maxim Firsov and Sergey Polissar, Yandex said in
a statement at the time.
Foodfox already worked with over 2,000 restaurants in Moscow and the combined company has continued to expand its partnership network over the last two and half years.
Uber Eats offers food from “several hundred” restaurants in Moscow as well as delivering McDonald’s orders under a global contract.
However, like the Polish market, the Russian food delivery business is very competitive. Uber Eats has to compete with market leader Delivery Club that is owned by Mail.ru Group, which has contracts with companies such as Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts and Subway.
Challenge from union
In explaining the IPO decision, the Mongolian cabinet has pointed to turbulence caused by a legal challenge from a Tavan Tolgoi miners' union. It is unhappy with a capital restructuring conducted in preparation for the stock sale, saying it should have meant a full shareholder vote, not just approval from the government, which owns 85% of the mine.
"There has been no information or solutions to questions raised about the restructuring," Dorjdari Namkhaijantsan, country manager for the international advocacy group Natural Resource Governance Institute, was quoted as saying by Nikkei Asian Review on April 28.
Mongolia is export-dependent and, given the economic hit China and other economies worldwide will take from the ramifications of the COVID-19 emergency, Fitch Ratings last week anticipated that Mongolian economic growth would be flat this year. It pointed to weakening demand and prices for Mongolia’s coal, copper and gold.
The Tavan Tolgoi deposit holds estimated coking coal reserves of 7.5bn tonnes.