By Andrei Skvarsky. Oney Bank LLC, the Russian unit of global banking group Oney, is changing hands as Sovcombank, one of Russia’s largest private lenders, has signed a deal to sell it to Russian online retailer Ozon. Ozon is buying 100 per cent of Oney, according to a statement from the retailer, which held an… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Russia
Russia’s Segezha timber products maker to hold IPO
Russian timber products manufacturer Segezha, a subsidiary of Russian conglomerate Sistema, has announced a plan to hold an initial public offering (IPO) of ordinary shares. The IPO would be held on the Moscow Exchange. Segezha expects to raise at least 30bn roubles ($396m at the April 14 exchange rate) via a primary offering of newly… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank offers a bunch of services as $5 monthly subscription package
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has launched a scheme for retail clients that, for a monthly subscription fee of 399 roubles ($5), offers a diversity of financial and non-financial services, including a free debit card and discounts on food delivery, taxi journeys, and restaurant bills. The SberPrime+ scheme involves the acquisition of a… Continue Reading
Russia’s Sberbank buying out e-commerce firm goods.ru
By Andrei Skvarsky. Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has signed a deal to buy out goods.ru (Marketplace), a Russian e-commerce company selling a wide range of consumer goods, among them electronics, car accessories, furniture, toys and medicines. Sberbank is going to acquire an 85 per cent stake in goods.ru by buying part of Russian electronics retailer… Continue Reading
Russian gold miner GV Gold puts off IPO over market ‘volatility’
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
Olga Turischeva hired from VC firm to head Sber University
Sberbank Corporate University (Sber University), an institution belonging to Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, has a new rector, Olga Turischeva, who has been hired from Russian venture capital firm RTP Global, the bank said in a statement. Turischeva’s record includes jobs at Russia’s search engine Rambler, consumer electronic retail chain M.video and telecommunications company Vimpelcom. Sber… 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
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
RenCap: Russian GDP to grow faster than most analysts expect
By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment bank Renaissance Capital predicts economic growth of between 2 and 6 per cent for 2021 for the majority of former Soviet republics and expects Russia to end the year with a gross domestic product increase of 3.8 percent. The Russian percentage is higher than the consensus forecast, RenCap’s economist for Russia… 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
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
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
Sberbank media chief Dobrokhvalova to simultaneously head Rambler
Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, has announced that the head of its media, advertising and entertainments division, Tatyana Dobrokhvalova, has been appointed as chief executive officer of Russian internet company Rambler, a Sberbank subsidiary, a position she will combine with her current Sberbank post. As CEO of Rambler, a company that runs one of Russia’s key… 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
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
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
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 promotes tech unit chief to senior VP
Konstantin Kruglov, chief executive of the SberDevices department of Sberbank’s technology division, has been promoted to senior vice-president of Russia’s biggest lender. Kruglov will remain in the technology division and will continue to oversee the development of artificial intelligence-based solutions for speech, natural language processing, face and voice authentication and virtual assistants technologies, Sberbank said… 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
Andrey Shemetov raised to senior VP of Sberbank, tasked with global business, investment, oversight of key clients
Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank has promoted Andrey Shemetov, one of its senior managers, to the rank of senior vice-president with the duties of overseeing activities in world markets, investment business, and work with key clients. In this position, Shemetov will be one of the top figures in the corporate and investment arm, Sberbank’s largest division,… 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
ENLARGED: Debex launches debut online delinquent debt auction in Spain
By Andrei Skvarsky. Debex, an international company running online auctions for delinquent debts, has launched trading in Spain with the debt portfolio of Spanish microlender Prestamer being its first sale. Debex credits its trading with quickness, efficiency and convenience for clients. A buyer can get acquainted with a debt portfolio before it is put on… Continue Reading
EM communications firm makes three senior hires
By Andrei Skvarsky. EM, an emerging markets communications and investor relations consultancy, has made three senior hires with Daria Khilenkova joining the company in Moscow, Jamie Hyman in London and Yury Krebs in Valencia. Khilenkova, who comes from investment bank Renaissance Capital, is in charge of financial communications in Moscow, according to an EM statement.… Continue Reading
Sberbank to be sole owner of Russia’s Cetelem Bank via deal with BNP Paribas
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank is going to become the sole owner of Russia’s Cetelem Bank, the country’s number one car loan provider, by enlarging its capital in the firm to 100 per cent under an agreement with BNP Paribas that awaits regulatory approval in Russia and France. Under the terms of the… Continue Reading
Sberbank renames itself Sber, changes logo, says it is ‘universe of services’
By Andrei Skvarsky. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank has changed its name to Sber and has had its logo redesigned. Sberbank is more than a bank these days but is a “universe of services for the individual and for business”, the lender said in a statement in explaining the rebranding, which was announced during a large-scale… Continue Reading