Features
Renewed frontier – Georgia’s TBC Bank laying groundwork for move into Uzbekistan
The LSE-listed lender’s CFO Giorgi Shagidze spoke to bne IntelliNews about the bank’s plans for a country that has won international plaudits for its reforms.
TURKEY INSIGHT: Pure genius. With economy back on cliff-edge Erdogan’s MPs propose expanding credit guarantee fund
Same day gives lira another wobble as central bank throws on another 50bp rate cut.
Fox Marble eyes expansion as it hopes to turn a corner in 2020
London-listed Fox Marble is developing world-class marble deposits that have long lain idle in the Western Balkans.
Belarus emerges as Europe's leading high tech hub
Best known as “Europe’s last dictatorship”, Belarus has a secret. Over the last decade it has grown a blossoming high tech industry that earned the small northern republic nearly $15bn last year – as much as Russia earns from arms exports.
BRICKS & MORTAR: Russian real estate ready for takeoff in 2020
Investment into Russia’s real estate sector surged in 2019 as the market finally turned the corner and brought the crisis years to a close.
BRICKS & MORTAR: Small, prosperous Slovenia lures retail investors but eurozone slowdown looms
Slovenia has seen a high level of investment by retailers over the last three years, but this is expected to slow as the eurozone crisis bites across the region.
Russia becomes a safe haven in an increasingly turbulent world
International investors used to worry about geopolitical Russia risk, but the fiscal fortress Putin has built now makes Russia's capital markets look like a safe haven.
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Ukraine's bank sector profit triples in 2019 as the sector gets on the path to sustained recovery
Profits in Ukraine’s banking sector tripled in 2019 to hit UAH59.6bn as of December, as a full recovery of the sector is now well underway.
"Westlessness" dominates the discussion at the Munich Security Conference
The West has lost the initiative to illiberal powers like China and Russia that are now acting on their own, according to the "Westlessness" report produced ahead of the Munich Security Summit.
Russia’s utility sector set to rally in 2020 as reforms progress
After a very strong rally Russia’s stock markets have been hit by fears of a global coronavirus epidemic and collapsing oil price. The market has given up all its gains, but not so the utilities sector which is up 16% YTD.
TURKEY INSIGHT: Bearish sentiment builds on reports of foreign disinvestment and outsized bet against splintering lira
Currency “seems on invisible string attached to 6.00 level,” says one analyst, adding: “When it snaps, dollar-lira is likely to shoot toward May 2019 high at 6.2457.”
US Treasury Department accuses Russian tycoon Deripaska of laundering money but offers no evidence
Sanctions placed on companies belonging to magnate appear based on a short, flimsy error-strewn memo, full of hearsay and almost entirely dependent on unreliable press reports.
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Trust in Putin continues to fall, numbers in on PM Mishustin for first time
Independent pollster Levada Center finds confidence rating in Russian leader has almost halved in past two years to 35%. But his personal popularity remains at an impressive 68%.
Russia’s CBR switches tactics from prudence to stimulation
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has switched tactics from running a prudent monetary policy to a more aggressive attempt to stimulate economic growth following its February 7 decision to shave another 25bp off the key monetary policy rate to 6%
TURKEY INSIGHT: Markets finally hit lira for six again as ‘state interventions fail’
Jitters over a combination of negatives and global market dynamics send currency to weakest level since last May.
#bneTech: OneWeb’s big satellite launch at Kazakh cosmodrome steps up race with Bezos, Musk to offer high-speed internet “everywhere”
UK company has Soyuz rockets deal and $1.7bn backing from Airbus, Coca-Cola, Virgin, Qualcomm and Softbank to deploy global network.
Banks on the run: odds shorten on Turkey losing both Unicredit and HSBC
Foreign investors unnerved by unpredictable and tight controls placed on economy by Erdogan regime are, meanwhile, largely avoiding Turkish sovereign bonds.
Slovenia’s “Banana King” takes to the skies
Why the world’s sixth-largest banana trader, Slovenian businessman Izet Rastoder, bought up the licences of bankrupt Adria Airways.
Returning migrants and trade disruptions: eastern EU members anticipate the cost of Brexit
Central European carmakers, Polish food producers and Czech brewers are among those expected to be hard hit by Brexit, but until a trade deal between the EU and UK is reached — or not — the extent of the fallout is impossible to predict.