Russia 090505 Basic Political Developments
Cyprus's Hellenic Bank gets Russian licence
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Razgulay starts to buy back rescheduled bonds
- Cedar Point Enters Russian Cable Market With VoIP Switching Solution
- Cristal champagne vs. Christall Russian vodka
- Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
- Gazprom
Cyprus's Hellenic Bank gets Russian licencehttp://www.reuters.com/article/rbssBanks/idUSL553237320090505 Tue May 5, 2009 2:58am EDT NICOSIA, May 5 (Reuters) - Cyprus's third-largest commercial bank, Hellenic Bank HBNK.CY, has received a licence from the Russian Central Bank to carry out banking activities in Russia, it said on Tuesday. Full operations through its subsidiary would start after taking into account circumstances prevailing from the global financial downturn, it added. (Editing by Simon Jessop) INTERVIEW: Home Credit and Finance Bank in Russia moves into retail http://www.businessneweurope.eu/story1582/INTERVIEW_Home_Credit_and_Finance_Bank_in_Russia_moves_into_retail Ben Aris in Moscow May 5, 2009 The consumer lending business has taken the blow dealt by the international crisis on the nose, but Ivan Svitek, CEO of Russia's second largest consumer bank Home Credit and Finance Bank (HCFB) is not unduly flummoxed. For the extra-tall Czech who took over running HCFB just before the crisis broke, it has been is an opportunity to take the bank in a new direction. "We had a great 2008 with record profits," says Svitek. "We were hit in December, but by then we had already taken action: we cut the mortgage, car loans and the low-margin business, as well as prophylacticly doubling our collection staff." Svitek says that HCFB's bad debt has risen to 9.1% of its total portfolio as of December, but is still less than the average for retail lenders. The bank has cut back on its less profitable point of sale desks (a company representative who mans a stand in the partner's shop) to concentrate on the most profitable outlets. Business volumes have tumbled too. HCFB specialises in consumer loans, many of which are made at the point of sale in electronic shops and the like. "Consumer electronic sales are down by 30%, but credits on these sales have fallen by half or more, as about a quarter of these goods were bought on credit and now only 7% to 12% are," says Svitek. "The Russian consumer is looking at their financial position and acting accordingly." Crisis modelling The crisis has caused a major headache for everyone, but catering to consumers has its own special problems. As consumer lending deals with large numbers of people, normally you can usually predict and model a consumer's behaviour fairly accurately and so spot new trends well in advance. Not so in a crisis. "You can model someone's spending habits pretty accurately, but the one thing you can't model is how likely they are to lose their job," says Svitek. Despite the dramatic drop in business, Svitek remains pretty sanguine about the future. The cost of capital has rocketed, but Svitek says that HCFB doesn't have a problem with funding, as it has accelerated plans to collect retail deposits and already raised enough capital to meet its immediate needs. "Pure retail banking is a new direction for us. We looked at it last year, but didn't go into it, as there was too much competition. But all that changed dramatically only a few months ago and now the market is wide open. We have moved fast and intend to build up one of the leading retail banks in the country," says Svitek, who already commands a network of 176 branch and points of sale in more than 1,200 cities, already making HCFB one of the biggest retail banking operations in Russia. Like other banks, HCFB has also been pushing true credit cards and issued its five-millionth card in April, making it the second biggest issuer of cards in Russia.
The crisis will be painful, but Svitek believes the market will recover before too long. He won't be drawn on how long this will take or on whether he believes there will be a second bank crisis later this year, driven by the rising number of non-performing loans in the sector. "None of the numbers out there are real. We won't really know what is going on until the fourth quarter of this year. It could go anyway at the moment," he says. "No one has a growth strategy at the moment. All the banks simply want to get to the end of the year with their capital intact." Russian retail borrowing is only 9% of GDP against over 25% in the west, so Russians are less exposed to the international crisis and presumably will recover their borrowing habit more quickly as a result. "People forget that the crisis is an opportunity for us. We now have a more focused business, our market share has increased and we are now pushing ahead full speed with plans to become a fully-fledged retail bank. We were only toying with this idea last year, but didn't move on it, as the competition was so stiff. Now everything is different. In the last six months, we have done more work on developing the business than we did in the two years prior to that."
MOSCOW. May 5 (Interfax) - Razgulay Finance, an SPV for the Razgulay agri-food group, has started to buy back rescheduled second- and third-series bonds. The company said it had repurchased 5,250 second-series bonds for a total of 5.323 million rubles and 60,684 third-series bonds for 61.843 million rubles. Commitments to buy back 91,383 second-series bonds and 794,342 third-series bonds are still outstanding. Razgulay proposed at the end of March to reschedule payments due on its second-to-fourth series bonds. The company said it would buy back 25% if bond-holders agreed not to tie it down to its latest scheduled offer this year, and the remainder in 2010. The third series is worth 2 billion rubles at face value and the third is worth 3 billion rubles. Razgulay Group, founded in 1992, has two divisions - grain and sugar - and produces, processes and trades in agricultural products. The group has 36 processing enterprises, including 12 sugar mills, as well as a dairy plant and cannery. The main beneficiary in the holding is its president Igor Potapenko.
By Diana ben-Aaron May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Telenor ASA, the biggest Nordic phone company, reported a 65 percent slump in first-quarter profit on losses linked to its stake in Russia’s OAO VimpelCom.
Telenor repeated guidance that full-year sales will be little changed from last year and the margin on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and other income and expenses will be around 34 percent. The Fornebu, Norway-based company said it’s evaluating and implementing efficiency programs to improve cash flow. “We expect the trends in the macroeconomic environment to continue and we are therefore focused on scaling our business activities accordingly,” Chief Executive Officer Jon Fredrik Baksaas said in the statement. The company aims to reduce costs and restrict capital spending this year to between 15 percent and 17 percent of sales, it said earlier this year. That doesn’t include licenses and spectrum. Telenor’s operating profit increased 3.2 percent to 3.99 billion kroner. VimpelCom Debt Woes Associated companies, including Ukraine’s ZAT Kyivstar GSM and Russia’s VimpelCom, pared 199 million kroner from earnings. Last year, they added 3 billion kroner, about half of it from a one-time gain. Foreign exchange losses in VimpelCom’s loan portfolio reduced the result this year, Telenor said. TeliaSonera AB, Telenor’s closest rival in the region, last week reduced its full-year sales forecast and reported little- changed first-quarter profit, citing lower handset sales and a decline in roaming revenue from business travelers. TeliaSonera’s Ebitda margin widened to 32.4 percent in the quarter, excluding items. Telenor investors rebelled against a planned 12 billion- krone share sale earlier this year, forcing the company to fund its stake in India’s Unitech Wireless with debt and cash saved by omitting dividends. Telenor initially spent $250 million to buy 33.5 percent of Unitech, and plans to reach 67.25 percent ownership, it said in March. The Indian investment will reduce Ebitda by 2 billion kroner to 2.5 billion kroner, the company said in February. Total Access Communication Pcl, the company’s Thai unit, said last week that first-quarter net income fell 37 percent as sales declined amid the slowing economy. To contact the reporter on this story: Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki at dbenaaron1@bloomberg.net Last Updated: May 5, 2009 01:45 EDT Sistema Up on Possible Sale http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1009/42/376801.htm Sistema gained the most in five months in Moscow trading after saying it may sell its stake in Comstar United TeleSystems to Mobile TeleSystems. Sistema jumped 16 percent on the MICEX Stock Exchange, the biggest gain since Nov. 27. Sistema will decide on a potential purchase of Comstar, a Russian phone and Internet company that it controls, by Mobile TeleSystems by the end of the second quarter, Sistema CEO Leonid Melamed said April 29. Mobile TeleSystems, known as MTS, is also controlled by Sistema. (Bloomberg)
DERRY, NH--(Marketwire - May 4, 2009) - Cedar Point Communications, a worldwide leader in integrated Voice over IP (VoIP) switching technologies for service providers and enterprise telecommunications operators, has formally received Lawful Intercept (SORM) certification from the Ministry of Communications in Russia for its SAFARI C3 Multimedia Switching System. With SORM certification, cable operators can easily deploy VoIP services and meet all regulatory requirements. "This certification enables us to continue our geographic expansion and will help us to establish a presence in the Russian cable market as a technology leader," commented J.C. Murphy, President and CEO at Cedar Point Communications. "VoIP has proven to be the most cost effective solution for providing high quality residential voice communications and commercial services, and is ideal for cable operators looking to expand their service offerings. Given Russia's large geographic size and dispersed population, SAFARI C3's compact form factor, superior scale, and leading price performance will prove to be a compelling story for those operators who are concerned with the complexity of delivering traditional VoIP services. SAFARI C3 has proven to accelerate the deployment of new services while reducing ongoing operations cost." Cedar Point has shipped more than five million SAFARI C3 lines to customers in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe. SAFARI C3 supports up to 250,000 lines of capacity in less than a cubic meter of space, incorporating all of the components that make up the voice switching infrastructure. It is being deployed for residential and business services by a diverse customer base that includes Cable System Operators, Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs), Class 5 Operators, Class 4 tandem operators, Wireless Operators and Universities. Cristal champagne vs. Christall Russian vodkahttp://www.russiatoday.ru/Top_News/2009-05-05/Cristal_champagne_vs._Christall_Russian_vodka.html 05 May, 2009, 11:56 Cristal champagne and a sister brand of Stolichnaya vodka are fighting for the use of a brand name on Russian soil. And it looks as though the local tipple is winning, and a luxury bubbly may soon be forced under the table. A State-owned Christal Vodka, a sister brand to the famous Stolichnaya, has taken Cristal the Champagne to court. The name they say is so similar to theirs, it may confuse the customer. Russian copyright watchdog Rospatent has ruled in favor of, you guessed it, vodka. “Its impossible to confuse the two, the name may be similar, but these are two very different products. It's like comparing chocolate to Santa Claus,” bartender Vladimir Tashinov said. Originally created for a Russian Tzar, Christal champagne with its signature see-through design, and a price tag of over $700 dollars, is now selling possibly its last stacks to Russia. The brand is half a century old, but it only got its license to sell here in 2006. Christal vodka secured its copyright some 30 years earlier, but sip on this: for now, it's not available in Russia. “Two products cannot exist under one name, that is international law,” insists Soyuzplodimport representative Elena Kozik. She added that that although Christal vodka is not sold in Russia itself, “we were here first, just like Cristal champagne was first in France, where our vodka had lost its copyright battle to Cristal champagne. Its not about revenge, they simply have to pay us a fee to keep on using our name here.” The company that owns the champagne brand denied our request for comment, but they previously said they are planning to appeal the decision and maintain their presence in the country. Cristal champagne has become a favorite tipple for anyone with money to burn, from hip-hop stars to Russian oligarchs. In Russia it’s been selling off the shelves with 1000 bottles allowed per year. To keep its Russian consumers, Cristal has two options: pay the fees, or change its name.
Rencap, Russia Tuesday, May 5, 2009 An article in today's (5 May) Kommersant, citing anonymous sources, reports that French retailer Carrefour and the controlling shareholder of Seventh Continent (SCON), Alexander Zanadvorov, have signed a preliminary non-binding agreement on the sale of the company. The sale, if executed, would be 75% of the retail operator as well as 95% of Mcapital (the company, which owns SCON's real estate). Carrefour is expected to present a new offer on 15 May, which, we understand, should be above $1.25bn for both the retailer and real estate company, excluding their debt. On Friday SCON distributed the terms of a bond restructuring, clearly indicating that the company will not be able to fully meet its obligations to bondholders in June 2009. Although we view the possible sale of SCON to Carrefour as clearly a credit-positive event, we point out that if the deal does not happen, the company's ability to fully meet the obligations of its restructured bonds might be under risk. Also, the value of the deal is not necessarily positive for equity holders of SCON shares, in our view. Action: The news should support SCON's share price, in our view. We believe that a sale to a strategic investor (or any other form of raising equity on the shareholder level) is a prerequisite for the company to be able to meet its obligations even after bond restructuring. Otherwise, SCON equity holders are at as much risk as its creditors. Given the still-high degree of uncertainty about the deal with Carrefour, we think it would be quite risky to purchase Seventh Continent shares on this basis, while the company's operating and financial performances indicate that it is a SELL at current levels. Natasha Zagvozdina Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)Oil and gas Time for a pause? http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text8531 Rencap, Russia Tuesday, May 5, 2009 Strong performance so far, time for a pause? Russian oil companies remain one of the most sensitive asset classes to the oil price. As the Brent price recovered 36% YtD, the Russian oil and gas sector, up 34%, outperformed the international majors by 38%. We believe the investment story will become more complex once the oil price exceeds the $60/bbl level, but, until then, we expect the oil industry will continue to operate in survival mode. Our analysis shows that the current share prices of most Russian oil companies already discount the average 2009 oil price of $50-60/bbl (vs the YtD average of $46/bbl). We believe it may take time for the oil price to recover, and therefore expect a temporary pause in the sector rally. __ New oil price forecasts. We remain fundamentally bullish on the oil price recovery over the medium term, as a negative supply response will inevitably cause market imbalances once demand stabilises. In the short term, however, we expect the oil price to remain volatile for both fundamental (demand destruction) and technical reasons (remaining heightened contango in oil futures). We lower our 2009 and 2010 average Brent estimates 18% and 12%, to $57.5/bbl and $70/bbl, but we expect the oil price to normalise at $80/bbl from 2011. __ We prefer those stocks which are less sensitive to the oil price volatility. We have updated our financial models for all stocks in the sector to account for new oil price forecasts, recently reported financial results, risk-free rates and various other stock-specific information, having reduced our target prices 12%, on average. A more cautious stance on the oil price recovery means the higher-valued and more sensitive to the oil price large cap oils (Rosneft and LUKOIL) are most vulnerable, prompting us to reduce our ratings on both to HOLD from Buy. We continue to like stocks which are least sensitive to oil price changes, namely Transneft and Surgutneftegas among the large-caps, and Volga Gas among the small caps. Among the gas producers, we prefer Gazprom over Novatek, with the latter's rating reduced to HOLD from Buy. Management of Shtokman Development AG is going to meet with the members of the Association of Oil and Gas Producers on May 15http://www.oil-gas.biz/new/990000933/ 04.05.2009 On day 15, Shtokman Development AG and the Association of the Oil and Gas Producers will hold the workshop “Presentation of the first phase of the Shtokman gas and condensate field development project. Requirements to suppliers and tender procedure”. The meeting will review the possibility of local companies to take part in this large investment project. The meeting will be attended by Yu.A.Komarov, CEO of Shtokman Development AG, A.V.Romanikhin, President of the Association of Oil and Gas Producers, Erve Madeo, Deputy CEO of the Shtokman Development AG, A.Plis, coordinator on suppliers' market research and Shtokman Development AG Executives. GazpromYüklə 307 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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