Page 9 - bne magazine November 2021_20211104 uzbekistan risding

bne November 2021 Companies & Markets I 9
“We are the only independent stakeholder and we helped to de-Russify it,” Da Vinci manager Denis Fuller told bne IntelliNews in a recent interview. “When we bought in about 80% of its business was Russian, but now it has fallen to around 60%. We helped them with M&A of international companies and now it operates in 55 countries. The company is getting ready for an IPO in October, a dual listing in London and Moscow.”
As followed by bne IntelliNews since 2018, Softline was among the Russian mid-caps slated for and expected to IPO in the next two-three years. Previously tech and digital Russian companies holding a successful IPO included HeadHunter
job searching portal and Ozon Holdings e-commerce major.
Previously the company has tapped the debt market, being one of the few Russian tech names to issue bonds, placing exchange bonds in October and April 2020, and back in December 2017.
Softline has announced it aims to raise about $400mn in the offering, but bne IntelliNews sources close to the deal say the target is to raise a total of $500mn from new global depository receipts (GDRs) and "existing shares to be sold by certain existing shareholders". The offering will be organised by Credit Suisse, JP Morgan and domestic VTB Capital (VTBC).
Notably, Softline is determined to use the proceeds from the IPO to fuel further growth, including via selective acquisitions in accordance with the group’s complimentary M&A strategy.
Ukraine to be self- sufficient in gas and abandon imports within five years – Naftogaz
Ben Aris in Berlin
Ukraine will be able to fully supply itself with gas
and abandon gas imports entirely within five years, Yuriy Vitrenko, chairman of the Ukraine’s national
gas company Naftogaz said during a panel discussion at the Ukrainian Gas Investment Congress (UGIC) in Kyiv on October 20, the company said in a statement.
“We can achieve this goal within five years thanks to three major factors. We have huge potential, and we are inspired by the example,” Vitrenko said.
Vitrenko noted that increasing biogas production is also an extremely important area of development for Ukraine.
"Today the total IT market in emerging markets is worth about $250bn, but in five years' time the business will be worth about $400bn," said Chernovolenko.
The company's strategy "combines organic expansion and complimentary M&A transactions, enabling us to continue
to deliver a full range of IT services to a large and growing market of customers, while strengthening robust and long- standing relationships with an expanding universe of partner vendors,” the head and founder of Softline Igor Borovikov commented in the press release.
Borovikov founded the company in 1993. Softline started life as a software reseller. The Soviet Union had collapsed two years earlier and one of the first foreign products to arrive in the newly minted Russia was Western software.
For the next 17 years Softline built this business up but computing was changing rapidly and in 2000 Borovikov decided he needed to diversify. From being a local software reseller in Russia with 10 employees, the company has grown into a global IT solutions and services provider, with $1.8bn annual turnover and more than 5,000 employees operating in over 55 countries.
Other shareholders of Softline include Da Vinci Capital,
a leading independent Private Equity fund, Zubr Capital,
a Belarusian private equity fund, and previously Sovcom Bank had a stake, but the company bought it back last year.
Ukraine already produces 20 bcm of gas a year but consumes c.35 bcm. The head of Naftogaz says the country could become self-sufficient in five years by developing its existing resources as well as biogas.
Ukraine already produces some 20bn cubic metres of gas domesti- cally from two medium-sized gas basins it has in the east and west of the country. Ukraine consumes approximately 35 bcm a year of gas, with the rest being imported from partners in the west. Ukraine stopped importing gas from Russia about four years ago.
However, almost all the existing gas fields were developed in Soviet times and most of them are close to the end of their useful lives. Since independence the country has not done much to develop the existing resources. The proven reserves could be sufficient for several decades and experts believe there is even bigger deposits that remain unfound that could be enough to make Ukraine self sufficient for even longer.
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