Russia 110204 Basic Political Developments
Sberbak-Troika Dialogue merger flounders
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- Standard Bank May Sell Troika Dialog Stake, Business Day Says
- Standard Bank eyes $360 mln for Troika stake: paper
- Standard Bank Doesn’t Want to Exit Russia ‘As a Region’
Sberbak-Troika Dialogue merger floundershttp://www.bsr-russia.com/en/banking-a-finance/item/1518-sberbak-troika-dialogue-merger-flounders.html Written by John Bonar on Friday, 04 February 2011 06:12 | Published in Banking & Finance By Eugene Kasevin Sberbank's billion-dollar deal to takeover Moscow brokerage Troika Dialog has been delayed and may even be off the cards, according to senior banking sources. The state-controlled bank and Troika were meant to be unveiling details of the transaction at Troika's annual investor conference this week. However, Troika's chief executive Ruben Vardanian announced on Wednesday it was "too early'' to speak of a deal. A senior source at Troika Dialog later told EmergingMarkets.me that the deal may no longer be on the cards with the brokerage looking to carry on as an independent player. Price may be a sticking point in negotiations between the Sberbank boss German Gref and Vardanian. Troika has a book value of about a $1bn and Vardanian is looking to sell for a significant premium. Gref is only willing to value Troika at $1.2 to $1.5bn, while Vardanian once rejected a $3bn bid in 2006 for his baby. Sberbank mulls buying Volksbank International http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20110204112216.shtml RBC, 04.02.2011, Moscow 11:22:16.Major Russian bank Sberbank is considering buying Volksbank International (VBI) and is conducting due diligence on the bank, the RBC Daily newspaper reported today. According to sources close to Sberbank, one of the options for financing the purchase is a swap of Sberbank's shares for the shares of VBI. A spokesperson for Sberbank declined to comment on this report. VBI is the international unit of Austrian bank Osterreichische Volksbank. Standard Bank May Sell Troika Dialog Stake, Business Day Sayshttp://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aGGF8UY_rpwE By Antony Sguazzin Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Standard Bank Group Ltd. may sell its stake in Russia’s Troika Dialog for $360 million, Johannesburg’s Business Day newspaper reported, citing a report from Renaissance Capital and Russian media reports. Standard spokesman Erik Larsen declined to comment, the newspaper said. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Standard Bank, Africa's biggest bank by assets, may sell its stake in Russia's Troika Dialog for $360 million as part of a cost-cutting drive, Business Day newspaper reported on Friday. Citing a report from Renaissance Capital and Russian media, Business Day said the Johannesburg-based banking group was planning to sell its stake in the investment bank to Sberbank, Russia's largest lender. A Russian newspaper reported on Thursday that Sberbank had agreed to buy Troika Dialog for $1.25 billion. One source close to the deal said Sberbank would initially buy 80 percent of Troika -- acquiring 36.4 percent from Standard Bank and 43.6 percent from Troika Chairman Ruben Vardanyan and other Troika shareholders. A Standard Bank spokesman declined to comment. Standard Bank announced late last year it was shedding more than 2,000 jobs and slowing its expansion drive to cut costs in the face of a potential decline in revenue. Banks in South Africa, Africa's largest economy, have struggled as high unemployment and household debt levels blunted demand for loans and hurt corporate spending. Standard Bank Doesn’t Want to Exit Russia ‘As a Region’http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aLRjyAsPgtS4 By Nicky Smith Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Standard Bank Group Ltd. doesn’t want to exit Russia “as a region,” Simon Ridley, the company’s finance director, said in an interview today. The Johannesburg-based company may sell its stake in Russia’s Troika Dialog for $360 million, Business Day said today, citing Renaissance Capital and Russian media reports. Standard is a minority shareholder in Troika, Ridley said. The company has a “strong” interest in Russia as a region, he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Nicky Smith in Johannesburg at nsmith38@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net
http://www.bne.eu/storyf2494/Digital_readers_to_Russias_regions
Rachel Morarjee in Moscow and Graham Stack in Kyiv February 4, 2011 E-books and digital readers could give a shot in the arm to Russia's ailing publishing industry, opening up the market of Russia's regions and the former Soviet Union to more literature, industry observers say. "Russia has very little physical distribution of books. There are no nationwide chains like Barnes & Noble or Waterstones," says Simon Dunlop, founder of the Russian digital download company Bookmate. At present, 80% of books in Russia are sold in Moscow and St Petersburg, with only 20% sold in the regions according to estimates from booksellers Bookmate and Ozon.ru. However, digital distribution of literature could overcome the huge logistical challenges of selling books across the vast territory in Russia. "With digital media, there are no border controls, no customs and no transport costs," says Dunlop. One of the former Soviet Union's claims to fame was to be a "nation of readers," and Russia remains a highly literate society with literacy rates on a par or higher than its peers in Western Europe. However, internet piracy has held back the development of the publishing industry, with illegal downloads robbing publishers of the revenues they need to promote young and up-coming authors. E-book downloads allow people to read pirated material, but could also boost legitimate readership.
Oleg Naumenko, the 29-year-old Ukrainian entrepreneur who launched the best-selling Pocketbook e-reader on the Commonwealth of Independent States market, has worked out how take advantage of the new techology and used it to found a legitimate online bookstore. Naumenko's realised that an e-reader designed for the Russian-language market could profit from the huge amount of free (ie. pirated) files the internet is awash in, without itself infringing in any way on copyright laws. The drawback to date with such files was the inconvenience of reading from printouts or LED displays. Naumenko's Pocketbook e-reader range, which costs around $300, does not come cheap, but users recoup their investment quickly if they use it to substitute for buying hard copy. The crisis year of 2009 was a breakthrough for Pocketbook; it sold 142,000 devices in 2009, earning $37m, with around 60% of the devices sold in Russia and most of the rest in Ukraine. According to SmartMarketing, Pocketbook took 43% of the Russian market, with Sony coming in second with 24%. The success is expected to continue in 2010, with the company expecting to earn $150m. Illustrating how fast this has all happened, despite last year's rocketing sales figures, only now is Pocketbook starting to build up a sales network - 85% of 2009 sales were made via the Internet. Meanwhile, Naumenko also got an e-book store up and running, where licensed files cost a fraction of hard copy. With 150m Russians and 110m in the CIS online, and double-digit growth in the numbers of people getting wired, the market has huge growth potential. Dunlop of Bookmate said the rise of e-book downloads will be positive thing for the publishing market in general. "As long as people have an internet connection, you can start to use the power of technology to crack open new markets," he says. Directory: gifiles -> attach attach -> British Forces – Akrioti, Greece Griffin Fighter Squadron (84 Squadron raf) MoD announced possible Typhoon and Tornado arrivals to the base France attach -> Unclassified//for official use only attach -> Adaptability Sustainment attach -> Pop-up 1 ("C" Chechnya) Header Text: Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov Image attach -> Russia and Islam are not Separate attach -> Chapter 13: The Northern Caucasus attach -> Russia 100209 Basic Political Developments attach -> The evolution attach -> The devolution attach -> South Korea and Brazil: Brazilian’s Plan and Korean Visit Download 228.9 Kb. Share with your friends:
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