GV Gold, one of Russia’s largest gold miners, has postponed a planned initial public offering (IPO) because of what its chief executive officer has described as “elevated levels of market volatility in global and Russian capital markets”. The IPO was to be held on the Moscow Exchange. Trading had been scheduled to start on March… Continue Reading
Category Archives: News
Financial literacy in UK not very high – Uswitch survey
By Andrei Skvarsky. A survey by British price comparison service Uswitch suggests that the average Briton is not too savvy about financial terminology with about one-fifth of the British failing to fully understand the term “pension” and about a quarter not being completely sure what “interest rate” means. Investment jargon is a set of financial… Continue Reading
Interest in cryptos high in U.S., Asia but Europe less excited – Invezz.com
By Andrei Skvarsky. The United States is the country most interested in cryptocurrency and there is wide-scale interest in crypto in Asia but Europe is far less excited, according to online investment intelligence company Invezz.com. India is in second place as regards interest in cryptocurrency, according to an Invezz.com study that evaluated the degree of… Continue Reading
Sberbank offers support for Serbian exports to Russia
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, has presented opportunities and offered financial support for Serbian consumer goods exports to Russia during an online meeting between a key Russian retail group and Serbian companies. Eight Serbian firms producing fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) presented products to X5 Retail Group during the event, organised by the lender’s… Continue Reading
Russia’s GV Gold plans IPO with Goldman Sachs, Sber, UBS, VTB, Raiffeisen, Sova as bookrunners
By Andrei Skvarsky. GV Gold, one of Russia’s largest gold-mining companies, plans an initial public offering (IPO) of shares with Goldman Sachs, SberCIB, UBS Investment Bank and VTB Capital as joint bookrunners and Raiffeisen Bank International and Sova Capital as co-bookrunners. The stake to be on sale will consist of ordinary shares and will be… Continue Reading
Regulator to use Colombia’s oldest bank in testing crypto transaction models, risks
By Andrei Skvarsky. Banco de Bogota, Colombia’s oldest commercial bank, will test cryptocurrency transaction models and risks in a planned digital pilot project this month organised by the financial regulator of a nation that is one of the world’s main users of cryptocurrencies. A selected group of clients would make digital transfers of money to… Continue Reading
Spain’s Debex auctioneer: bids up 32 pct during 3-month delinquent debt sales
By Andrei Skvarsky. Debex Espana, a Spanish company running online auctions, has sold delinquent debts worth a total of 41.6m euros ($49.4m) over the past three months, according to a statement from its parent group Debex. The debts made up eight portfolios and 33,500 accounts. Bids went up by an average of 32 per cent… Continue Reading
Russia’s Fix Price retailer reaffirms London, Moscow IPO plan
By Andrei Skvarsky. Fix Price, Russia’s largest discount retailer, has reaffirmed a plan for an initial public offering of shares (IPO) in London and Moscow, having hired BofA Securities, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and VTB Capital as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. The final offer price will be announced when the book building… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank stops clients from losing $838m to cyber rogues in 2020 – CEO
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank prevented online fraudsters from stealing 57bn roubles ($838m) from its clients in 2020, a year that saw a dramatic global cyber crime surge triggered by coronavirus, Sberbank chief executive officer Herman Gref said on February 16. “We have achieved the highest level of security in the world,” Gref… Continue Reading
Russia’s GV Gold boosts gold production by 5% YoY
By Andrei Skvarsky. GV Gold, one of Russia’s top gold mining companies, has reported gold output of 272 kilo ounces (koz) for 2020 or five per cent up on 2019 and announced it expects to produce between 290 and 300 koz in 2021. The statistics are combined figures for the parent company and the subsidiaries,… Continue Reading
Moscow’s Japanese-owned SBI Bank to get investment from sovereign funds
By Andrei Skvarsky. Two state-owned investment promotion funds, one of them Russian and the other Russian-Japanese, have pledged to make a joint investment in SBI Bank, a Russian lender owned by Japanese group SBI Holdings. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Russia-Japan Investment Fund, which has been instituted by RDIF and a subsidiary… Continue Reading
ActivTrades: Pound doing better than dollar, euro, due to good start of UK Covid vaccination
London-based foreign exchange broker ActivTrades has reported the British pound to have done better than the dollar or the euro in early January 27 trading, attributing this to perceived investor optimism brought about by Britain’s successful start of Covid-19 vaccination. Markets see the successful roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Britain, where coronavirus has killed… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sovcombank says receiving its first ESG loan
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sovcombank, one of Russia’s largest banks by assets, has announced it has signed an agreement to receive its first loan to be based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles. Financing Sovcombank’s buy-now-pay-later Halva card programme is the purpose of the ESG tranche of a two-tranche syndicated loan of $350m arranged for… Continue Reading
ActivTrades broker abolishes some fees, offers to sell fractional shares
ActivTrades, an online foreign exchange (forex) and contract for differences (CFD) broker, has started off 2021 with special offers, abolishing some of its trading fees and allowing purchases of parts of shares rather than full shares. There will be no trading fees for any European, British or U.S. stocks sold to non-leveraged retail investors. Nor… Continue Reading
TSC, Anatase co-design indices of water risk to corporate earnings
By Andrei Skvarsky. Financial consultancies Thomas Schumann Capital (TSC) and Anatase Ltd have developed, with support from financial markets data company Refinitiv, a family of indices to show whether the quantity and quality of water used by a company in its business pose any risk to its earnings and how serious such risk is. The… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank upbeat about its Islamic finance record
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank’s business areas include Islamic finance, and Russia’s biggest lender has shown good performance in this field in 2020, according to a statement from the bank. Sberbank, which is currently rebranding itself as Sber, has obtained regulatory approval in Russia and the United Arab Emirates for opening a subsidiary in Abu Dhabi,… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sovcombank to lend up to $300m for building Akkuyu nuclear plant in Turkey
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sovcombank, one of Russia’s largest banks, has entered into a deal in which it would lend a maximum of $300m to co-finance Russia’s current construction of a nuclear power plant at Akkuyu, Turkey, the first Turkish nuclear generating facility. The borrower is construction project operator Akkuyu Nuclear JSC, a subsidiary of Russian… Continue Reading
Deal with identity verifier Sumsub provides Leverate fintech firm with anti-fraud solutions
By Andrei Skvarsky. Leverate, a Limassol-headquartered technology provider for foreign exchange brokerages, has clinched a deal with London-based identity verifier Sumsub that supplements packages offered to clients by the Cyprus-based company with anti-fraud technologies. The terms of the deal save customers of Leverate, whose technology is used by about 65,000 traders, the trouble of going… Continue Reading
M4Markets forex, CFD broker upgrades arsenal by launching MT5 platform
By Andrei Skvarsky. M4Markets, a foreign exchange and contract-for-differences (CFD) brokerage, has announced it has rolled out a MetaTrader 5 (MT5) electronic trading platform in addition to the less sophisticated MetaTrader 4 (MT4) it used until then. MT5 offers a range of features that MT4 does not possess. They include an in-built economic calendar, the possibility… Continue Reading
Sberbank adopts role of Russian vehicle of WEF’s climate-related initiative
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank has taken on the mission of a key vehicle in Russia for a World Economic Forum (WEF) initiative to encourage companies to take better account of risks caused by climate change in their business planning. Sberbank, which is rebranding itself as Sber, has become general partner of Russian… Continue Reading
M4Markets FX and CFD broker launches festive rebate promo
By Andrei Skvarsky. M4Markets, a foreign exchange (FX) and contract-for-difference (CFD) brokerage, has announced that clients of the company will receive $2 for every lot they trade as a Christmas-New Year rebate promotion launched on December 1 and expiring on January 31. Only direct clients, both current and new ones, and only those holding a standard… Continue Reading
Sberbank uses character from 1970s movie in deepfake ad
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank has shot a humour-tinged deepfake ad video showing a character transferred from a 1973 Soviet comedy film into the Moscow of 2020 being amazed by and enjoying a variety of services offered by the bank’s ecosystem. Petty burglar George Miloslavsky from the movie Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession,… Continue Reading
Russian timber business Segezha reports 38 pct YOY revenue growth
By Andrei Skvarsky. The revenue of Russian timber products manufacturer Segezha Group showed a year-on-year increase of 38 per cent as of the end of September, according to the company, which is part of Russian conglomerate Sistema. Segezha had a revenue of 19bn roubles ($256m) for the third quarter of 2020, which was 38 per… Continue Reading
Dubai’s Emirates NBD says new device for clients is all-in-one cash admin system
By Andrei Skvarsky. Dubai’s largest bank Emirates NBD has launched a digital platform for its business clients that, according to the lender, enables them to manage all their financial activities. The businessONLINE platform offers “a full suite” of cash and liquidity management and trade finance solutions to clients “ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Day 2 of the Future of Insurance Europe in Progress
Day two of The Future of Insurance Europe, a two-day online conference organised by Reuters Events and bringing together more than 3,500 insurance professionals, is live now. Please check the list of speakers on https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexanderjhbird_insurance-disruption-future-activity-6737294463779004416-E8q9. Continue Reading
Ingot Brokers speeds up client verification to ‘3 minutes’ via deal with Sumsub
By Andrei Skvarsky. Australian multi-asset financial brokerage Ingot Brokers has drastically speeded up its client identity verification procedure and made it more accurate via an automated solution acquired from London-headquartered identity verifier Sumsub. The solution, obtained by Ingot from Sumsub under a partnership agreement, cuts customer onboarding time “from 3 days to 3 minutes”, the… Continue Reading
Russian e-payment service Yandex.Checkout being renamed YooMoney for foreign markets
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russian online payment service Yandex.Checkout, which is owned by Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, will rebrand itself as YooMoney for non-Russian markets. The rebranding will be completed by December 15, 2020, before which the payment company will use both names, Yandex.Checkout and YooMoney, the firm said in a statement. Sberbank became the sole… Continue Reading
Sberbank widens range of languages it uses to talk to foreign clients
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, has enlarged the range of foreign languages it uses to communicate with non-Russian-speaking customers, adding Japanese, Chinese, Korean, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Finnish, Uzbek, and Tajik to English, which it has used before. Sberbank branches have presentations of key products and services such as cards, savings accounts, internet… Continue Reading
Minority owners to reject Kaz Minerals buyout price offer from Nova
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based investment adviser CFC Management has confirmed that its clients who together own a stake of about 3.6 per cent in copper producer Kaz Minerals intend to vote against the acquisition price offered for the London-listed copper miner by investment consortium Nova Resources. In following CFC advice, the owners of the 3.6… Continue Reading