Twelfth sanctions package, fines in the UK: the main thing on December 15

World

• Yandex Taxi service contributed 3 billion tenge (more than $6.5 million) to the state fund to support Kazakhstan’s digital ecosystem after an antitrust investigation by the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition of Kazakhstan (AZRK). The regulator also ordered the company to limit price increases during times of high demand.

• British authorities have imposed fines on companies that conceal information about their links to Russia. Its size will be up to £1 million.
• The countries of the European Union, despite the objections of Austria and Hungary, agreed to the twelfth package of sanctions against Russia. According to Reuters, the new sanctions package should also include a complete ban on the import of Russian non-industrial diamonds from January 1 and a gradual ban on the import of diamonds from third countries from March.

Finance

• The Bank of Russia increased the interest rate to 16% per year. This is the fifth consecutive increase. The Central Bank points out that current inflationary pressure remains high. The regulator admits that the upward deviation of the Russian economy from the balanced growth trajectory in the second half of 2023 turned out to be larger than estimated in October. Overall credit growth rates remain high.

• The founder of the startup studio TheQube.VC Anton Pronin and the closed mutual fund Intellect Capital launched the Malina VC venture fund with a volume of one billion rubles to invest in Russian projects in the field of fintech, markets and related services. The planned volume of investments in one project will be 20 to 35 million rubles; The fund will receive up to 10% of the capital of each project in exchange for investments.

• Mir cards occupied more than half of the Russian payment market: the share of transactions with these cards amounted to 52.5% of the total volume.

Business

• Indian e-commerce startup Udaan has raised $340 million from M&G Plc, Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global.
• One of the Russian structures of the American pizza chain Papa John’s, the 4 Papas company, is facing bankruptcy. The application was submitted by two individual entrepreneurs who, through the court, managed to collect debts from the network for renting premises for restaurants, Kommersant learned.

• Before preparing for the New Year holidays, Vkusville launched a pre-order service in Moscow and the Moscow region. The option will allow customers to plan purchases in advance and the retailer will distribute the load in dark stores. Pre-order is free and available for both individuals and companies.