Moscow press review for July 28, 2016
MOSCOW. July 28 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on July 28. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
POLITICS & ECONOMICS
Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has drafted a presidential order to approve a national plan for development of competition for 2017-2018. Previously the government pursued these efforts within the context of the program for development of competition to 2015. The format of a presidential order would give the competition regulator special status among government agencies (Kommersant, p. 2).
OIL & GAS
Russia's finance and energy ministries have conceptually agreed on the tax reform in the oil industry that will involve a transition from a fixed natural resource extraction tax to a tax on excess profit. The Energy Ministry, which had wanted a voluntary transition, has finally agreed to make the reform mandatory. The reform will apply to both new fields in new regions and old fields (Vedomosti, p. 1).
Tatneft has become the latest state company to submit a bid in the privatization of the Russian government's 50.08% stake in oil company Bashneft. In addition, Russian Direct Investment Fund wants to participate in the privatization in partnership with foreign funds. Lawyers said the legitimacy of privatization deals involving state-controlled companies depends on the interpretation of the law, but hardly meets the initial goals of boosting budget revenues (Kommersant, p. 9).
BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE
Russian Standard Bank, a major retail lender, wants to buy back some debts from collection agencies in order to return rejected borrowers. This is cheaper than acquiring new borrowers. Other banks disagree. The share of nonperforming retail loans at Russian Standard stood at 43.6% as of July 1 (Vedomosti, p. 11).
Sberbank has become the largest creditor of the companies of Senator Suleyman Kerimov that control leading Russian gold producer Polyus. They borrowed $5.5 billion from state bank VTB in late 2015 to buy shares from Polyus minority shareholders, but refinanced the debt in February with a long-term $6 billion loan from Sberbank secured by a controlling stake in holding company Polyus Gold. Analysts see the investment as fairly secure, but VTB deemed it too risky (Kommersant, p. 9).
RETAIL & CONSUMER MARKET
Ulmart, which is owned by the former co-owners of the Lenta retail chain, has again become the largest retailer on the Russian Internet, with sales of 36.8 billion rubles in 2015, according to a ranking of the country's leading online retailers compiled by Data Insight and Ruward. Wildberries.ru and Citilink are second and third, respectively, while the online store of consumer electronics retailer M.Video entered the top five for the first time (Vedomosti, p. 11).
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
Russia's Defense Ministry plans to start rolling out an electro-optical intelligence system based on the latest Razdan satellites in 2019. They will replace the Persona satellites that the military had big hopes for in the early 2000s but only received a few years ago. The Space Forces and the Progress rocket and space center are holding consultations on the design of the new satellites (Kommersant, p. 1).
The Russian government has appointed Rostec as the sole contractor for the construction of IT and telecommunications infrastructure for the World Cup tournament that Russia will host in 2018. The state corporation is asking the government for 11 billion rubles for the project. Rostec intends to use primarily Russian technology for the project (Vedomosti, p. 10).
Gazprom Media has restructured its group of entertainment TV channels, which includes TNT, TV-3, Pyatniza, TNT3 and 2x2, as well as production companies Comedy Club Production and Good Story Media. Development of the channel's TV networks and back office will be handled by subgroup GPM Entertainment TV, headed by Artur Dzhanibekyan. The head of TV channels will focus on expanding their own production content and monetizing it (Kommersant, p. 7).
TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS
Operators of the world's biggest serially produced commercial cargo plane, the An-124 Ruslan, want to organize maintenance of the aircraft bypassing their Ukrainian developer Antonov. Amid tense relations with Ukraine, they are proposing Russia's Ilyushin Design Bureau oversee maintenance. But Antonov is not willing to condone this and could stop the Ruslan from flying outside of Russia, which is where the planes mostly operate (Kommersant, p. 7).
AUTOMOTIVE & ENGINEERING
BMW has decided not to install the ERA-Glonass emergency accident response system, which will become mandatory in Russia next year, in its cabriolets and coupes, reckoning that sales of these niche models will not cover the cost. The German automaker hopes to import vehicles for 2017 into Russia this year, but it is not clear whether it will be possible to buy coupes or cabriolets in the country in 2018 (Kommersant, p. 1).
GM-Avtovaz, the joint venture between General Motors and leading Russian carmaker Avtovaz, is asking the Russian government for help to manufacture the new generation Chevrolet Niva sport utility vehicle. Government guarantees might be provided for half the cost of the project, or 5 billion-6 billion rubles. The guarantees would be used to secure a loan from Sberbank (Vedomosti, p. 10).