Profit at Russia’s Sistema drops by a third as exchange rates bite June 15, 2011 RUSSIAN oil-to-telecoms holding company Sistema reported a 33 per cent fall in first-quarter net profit due to a smaller foreign exchange gain yesterday. Net profit fell to $97.2m (£59.7m), while net profit before one-offs rose 30.5 per cent to $102.3m. The company said sales rose 25.8 per cent to $7.8bn, driven by mid-size oil asset [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 14, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES RBS TAKES CONTROL OF 42 MARRIOTT HOTELS Royal Bank of Scotland has taken control of a £1bn property portfolio of Marriott hotels after failing to secure a debt-for-equity restructuring of one of its largest individual real estate loans made during the property boom. RBS on Tuesday night appointed Ernst & Young as receivers to [...]
PhosAgro to try London’s IPO market June 14, 2011 FERTILISER producer PhosAgro is planning a Moscow and London initial public offering (IPO) worth more than $500m (£305m) next month, the latest in a string of Russian firms to test a lacklustre market for new listings. Launching the offering yesterday, PhosAgro chief executive Maxim Volkov said the company planned to float 10-15 per cent of [...]
HSBC sells Russian consumer banking division to Citigroup June 14, 2011 HSBC has agreed to sell part of its Russian retail banking business to Citigroup in a deal valued at around $10.7m (£6.5m). The British bank said in April that it would quit its Russian retail operations, becoming the latest in a string of international lenders to pull the plug on consumer banking in the country. [...]
Facebook is worth $100bn but users slip June 13, 2011 FACEBOOK last month shed users across a number of its mature markets, sparking fears its meteoric growth is beginning to peak. Last month it lost 6m users in the US to fall below 150m and lost a further 100,000 in the UK. Canada, Russia and Norway also registered a similar fall, according to data gathered [...]
Royal wedding holiday boosts BAA airport traffic June 13, 2011 Passenger traffic at BAA’s airports increased by 9.2 per cent last month compared to May 2010, with the late Easter holidays and the royal wedding leading to more passengers at the beginning of the month. BAA, majority owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, on Monday said 9.3m passengers flew from its UK airports in May, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 12, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES FOREIGN BANKS AND GOVERNMENTS IN DESPERATE ASSAULT ON US TAX LAW Banks and foreign governments are mounting an increasingly desperate push against a sweeping US tax law that will force overseas institutions to report their American clients to the Internal Revenue Service. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was passed by Congress last [...]
Rejoice: Opec’s days are numbered June 8, 2011 THERE was a time when the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), the cartel of oil producing nations, was the world’s Enemy Number One. The group wielded terrifying powers: it could make or break economies by increasing or reducing the supply of oil, sending its price rocketing or crashing. No longer: Opec, while still [...]
BP downbeat on Rosneft June 8, 2011 BP CHIEF executive Bob Dudley yesterday gave a downbeat view of his firm’s chances of reviving a deal with Russia’s Rosneft, as the oil giant revealed its annual global review of world energy. “Whether that project goes forward or not, it’s very quiet. This is part of a big portfolio of exploration pursuit. Sometimes it’s [...]
BP denies plan to sell TNK-BP June 7, 2011 BP yesterday insisted that it had no plans to sell down its half share in Russia’s third-largest oil producer TNK-BP, denying comments from sources close to its partners that it threatened such a move. The oil giant said its focus in Russia was on developing its TNK-BP venture, and denied it was preparing to reduce [...]