By Andrei Skvarsky. The real-time online geological monitoring unit of Russian state oil company Rosneft was involved in drilling more than 3,000 wells in 2020, according to the firm, which said this made the division the world leader among facilities of this kind. With a team of about 80, the Moscow-based Geological Drilling Support Centre,… Continue Reading
Category Archives: News
EXCLUSIVE: Polish VC firm Inovo launches 2nd fund, worth 54m euros
By Andrei Skvarsky. Inovo Venture Partners, a Polish venture capital (VC) firm focused on technology startups in Central and Eastern Europe, has closed a second fund, one worth 54m euros, after its first fund generated a 320 per cent return on investments in 15 companies, leading two of them to successful initial public offerings (IPOs).… Continue Reading
ActivTrades brokerage reports record profit, turnover for 2020
Online brokerage ActivTrades has reported a profit and turnover for 2020 that it says are the highest annual volumes since the company was set up 20 years ago. The London-based brokerage, which provides services in more than 140 countries in 14 languages, offering more than 1,000 contract-for-differences (CFD) or spread-betting instruments, registered a pretax profit of… Continue Reading
Russian unit of Oney banking group to go over from Sovcombank to Ozon retailer
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
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
KPMG, Deloitte, Grant Thornton to advise Uzbekistan on privatisation of 18 firms
Global accounting and advisory firms KPMG, Deloitte and Grant Thornton have been hired to advise the Uzbekistan government on the planned privatisation of 18 companies, including an insurer, oil refinery, electricity transmission line builder, and 10 wine and spirits producers. State investment company UzAssets said this week that 86 bids had come in from 17… 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
Buildings in Tashkent, mountain resorts on sale under Uzbekistan privatisation project
Uzbekistan’s government plans to sell several properties, including three mountain resorts, under a real estate privatisation project announced last week. Five properties with a total floor space of 85,490 square metres (920,000 square feet) are going on sale in capital city Tashkent. They are a business centre, hotel, indoor houseware market, newspaper printing office and… Continue Reading
ActivTrades: Inflation concerns a key world stock market factor
An analyst at London-based financial broker ActivTrades has argued that mixed developments in global stock markets this week are “broadly a reflection of lingering inflation concerns”. Investors expect an early rise in inflation in the United States because of the current successful vaccine rollouts there, technical analyst Pierre Veyret said in a statement. On the… 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
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