Russia

Sberbank’s rebrand puts style before substance

24 September 2020

Russia’s $67 bln lender is ditching “bank” from its name to sound more like a Big Tech group. Plans for $1 bln in 2020 non-financial digital revenue are a start, but it still has 100 mln banking clients. If the company wants its rejig to motor, it needs better transition targets.

Russian tech giant Yandex leaps into superapp race

23 September 2020

As China and the U.S. battle over access for each other’s tech groups, the $23 bln search engine is snapping up online bank Tinkoff for $5.5 bln for a pricey 4 times book value. But it adds the fintech component to CEO Arkady Volozh’s ecosystem of ride-sharing and e-commerce.

Navalny cloud may yield green energy silver lining

22 September 2020

A suspected Novichok attack on the Kremlin critic further complicates German links to Russia via the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline. For now, gas needs mean Berlin can’t bow to U.S. pressure to ditch the project. But it should add impetus to the drive for alternative energy sources.

De Beers’ rocks are in an increasingly hard place

3 September 2020

Even before Covid-19, the Anglo American-owned diamond giant’s lunch was being eaten by Russia’s Alrosa and cheaper man-made stones. De Beers still has access to Botswana’s high-quality gems. But lockdowns are blunting the edge its quirky sales method has enabled.

Russian conglomerate finds discount hard to shake

3 September 2020

Sistema wants to put a value on resilient companies such as online retailer Ozon and wood pulp maker Segezha. That’s logical: the $2.7 bln group trades at a hefty discount to its investments. But its oligarch owner, poor governance and sanctions noise are lasting burdens.

Kremlin foe’s illness benefits Russian kleptocrats

21 August 2020

Allies of Alexei Navalny say the politician-investigator has been poisoned. In a country with few independent voices, his damaging exposés of leading figures’ corruption and cronyism have been popular - and embarrassing. Any would-be emulators are now likely to be more cautious.

All sides could gain from $42 bln NorNickel reset

28 July 2020

An agreed management shakeup would protect the role of CEO Vladimir Potanin, who holds 35% in the Russian miner, and dodge legal disruption. Rusal, with 28%, could eke out more control. Other investors would get a better-run company, and a lower risk of ecological catastrophe.

UK rules need more bite to combat Russia influence

21 July 2020

Welcoming Russian money without many checks was counterproductive, a parliamentary report said. Attempts made so far to tackle the issue don’t go far enough. Investing more in regulatory and crime-fighting bodies and asking tougher questions about the source of wealth may help.

OPEC maintains illusion of control over oil price

15 July 2020

The producer group and allies stuck to plans to hike output, after coordinating a huge cut in April. While that will soothe jittery oil traders, a second virus wave would ruin the calm. And the more prices rise, the harder it will be to stop members pumping what they like.

Norilsk Nickel underlines funds’ ESG blind spot

2 July 2020

The Russian miner had a bad pollution record even before it leaked 21,000 tonnes of fuel in the Arctic Circle. Passive investors like BlackRock have pledged to engage more closely with ESG miscreants. But when the company is controlled by oligarchs, they may just be ignored.

Review: Russian capitalism binds “Putin’s People”

26 June 2020

The president’s murky networks blur the line between public, private and criminal cash, Catherine Belton writes. Tycoons must obey the omnipresent Kremlin to survive. Half of ordinary Russians do the same: They rely on the system for work. It helps explain Putin’s survival.

Yandex picks good time to untangle from Sberbank

24 June 2020

The Russian search engine will pay $600 mln for the bank’s stake in their e-commerce tie-up and exit their payments unit. With shares up, funding this with $800 mln from investors like Roman Abramovich makes sense. Sadly, immunity from Kremlin meddling isn’t part of the deal.

Norilsk Nickel hits investors when they’re down

11 June 2020

The miner’s biggest shareholder Vladimir Potanin wants to cap 2020 dividends at 25% of forecasts. ESG-conscious foreign investors will have blanched after it leaked 21,000 tonnes of fuel. They’ll be even less keen on cutting payouts by a lot more than the apparent cleanup costs.

Battle for Russia’s Amazon crown is heating up

5 June 2020

The country’s biggest lender Sberbank may buy a 30% stake in online marketplace Ozon after untangling itself from rival Yandex. The deal could value it at more than $2 bln. There’s room for both players in a market enjoying a Covid-19 boost, but the usual political caveats apply.

Moscow finds oil and vodka make a poor cocktail

21 May 2020

The former owners of Yukos, the energy group founded by Vladimir Putin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky, are going after the Kremlin by grabbing trademarks for brands like Stolichnaya. These won’t make up for their lost $57 bln but may give aggrieved investors some negotiating leverage.

Russia’s oil-and-virus airbag is robust but finite

24 April 2020

The double whammy of a crude price collapse and Covid-19 could cause a hefty budget deficit. Moscow’s $170 bln wealth fund can plug a hole worth 5% of GDP if need be. The issue is more the optics of raiding the piggy bank while looking relatively stingy on subsidising wages.

Viewsroom: The F’d up oil market

23 April 2020

Breakingviews columnists in London, Mumbai and Brooklyn discuss what’s going on in the global energy markets amid the coronavirus crisis, as well as Facebook’s big Indian deal and the U.S. government’s attempt to prop up small businesses with the Paycheck Protection Program.

SEC puts small plug in oil ETF loss gusher

21 April 2020

The U.S. agency has stopped USO, a popular exchange-traded fund used by investors to bet on oil, from creating new shares. Stemming the fund’s growth may help trading in a futures market wracked by negative prices. But it won’t stop its investors facing huge losses.

Oil’s big crash is more rational than it looks

20 April 2020

U.S. one-month crude futures went below zero for the first time ever on Monday. With the May contract about to expire, the slump is partly driven by technical factors. But the wider panic – that recent output cuts won’t stop storage being filled – couldn’t be any more real.

OPEC throws sand in wheels of oil’s runaway train

9 April 2020

The producer group and allies like Russia are set to knock one-tenth off global daily oil output. The cut, which could rise if other countries agree to join in, might start draining the epic glut holding down prices. But it won’t do much if the Covid-19 demand slump persists.