Page 17 - bne_newspaper_May_25_2018

Eastern Europe
May 25, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
bne:Tech
May, 2018 www.intellinews.com @bneintellinews
Avast to enter London bourse in bid to raise up to $1bn Jaroslav Hroch in Prague
Avast, which owns the popular consumer antivirus company AVG, will apply to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in the hope of raising $200mn (CZK4.1bn) in primary proceeds from an IPO, the Czech-founded company announced on April 12.
See page 2
St Petersburg's start-up scene flourishes on high talent and low costs
Contents
Avast to enter London bourse
in bid to raise up to $1bn 1 Avast to enter London bourse in bid to raise up to $1bn 2 St Petersburg's start-up scene
flourishes on high talent and low costs 3 Romania entrepreneur aims to put home-grown UAV defence technology industry on the map 6
FinTech
Russia's mobile major MTS increases stake in Ozon to 16.7% 9
Blockchain
Romanian startups at the heart
of blockchain energy trading rally 10
Central Europe
Russian-Lithuanian startup Gosu.ai
raises $1.9mn from Russian and
French investors 13
Eurasia
Iran hit by cyber attack that left US
flag on screens 14 Iranian government set to block hugely popular Telegram messaging app 15 Iran's black market phone disconnection drive pushes up legal mobile imports 15
Eastern Europe
Internet catches up with TV on Russian
ad market 17 Sales of connected appliances jump
in Russia 17 Russia's HeadHunter Group seeks
to raise $250mn with NASDAQ IPO 18 Russia ranks second in the world
for digital piracy 18 Russian messaging service Telegram raised another $850mn with ICO 19
Southeast Europe
Russia's HeadHunter Group seeks
to raise $250mn with NASDAQ IPO 20
The Regions This Month 21
Filip Brokes in St Petersburg
See page 3
GET THE BEST CONTENT DELIVERED STRAIGHT INTO YOUR INBOX!
SIGN UP HERE
bne Tech
We have launched a new publication bneTech
A FREE newsletter covering technology, blockchain, ICOs, TMT and all aspects of the "new economy" in Emerging Europe, Central Asia and MENA.
*Please note by clicking the button you give permission for bne to send you e-mails as per the EU's GDPR rules.
SIGN UP HERE
devaluation. The NBU will be forced to react with interest rate hikes, new capital and exchange controls, and other anti-crisis measures," the added.
"Would these steps be effective in preventing currency crisis or not depends on many factors, including global commodity prices," the document reads. "In any case, anti-crisis measures will dent on already weak economic growth, which will likely undermine the current pro-EU course of Ukraine and give new ammunition to pro-Russian (and populist) forces."
Moreover, the government "may appear on the brink of default even earlier", as the majority of scheduled external debt repayments are to be made from government’s coffers, not the central bank, according to the report.
The government faces $6.7bn of external debt repayments by the end of the next year. Of these, about $2bn are due before the end of 2018, while the government’s foreign currency liquidity amounted only to $1.4bn by the end of the first quarter of 2018, including funds kept in state- owned banks.
"This is sufficient to meet scheduled repayments only till August-September," the authors believe. "The government can buy foreign currency from the central bank, if it has enough hryvnia in its account. This may be an important “if” because the government’s revenue is falling behind the plan. The government may muddle through for another several months by tapping domestic dollar-denominated bonds, but will eventually find itself on a brink of default, perhaps even to official creditors such as the IMF or the US."