Selectel began preparing for an IPO, access to the shares of South Korea, Brazil, Mexico: the main thing May 17

World

• The EU will not include a ban on pipeline gas imports from Russia in the 11th sanctions package, Politico reports.

Russia

• The head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Maxim Shaskolsky, called for the introduction of a parallel import mechanism for all categories of goods. Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, said that the department was going to extend the program of parallel import of goods that “is needed” by one year. At the same time, the list of products subject to such imports will be reduced.

Finance

• Otkritie Bank launched a payment tag for mobile phones.
• A financial airbag is an untouchable amount in the event of job loss or sudden large expenses. Financier Alexander Gamayunov and financial market specialist Vyberu.ru told how to form an inviolable amount and save the accumulated.
• Broker Finam can give clients access to the South Korean and Mexican markets until the end of 2023, RBC has learned. Instruments in new markets will be available only to qualified investors.

Business

• Wildberries has launched a new data processing center (DPC) in the Moscow region, it has become the largest object of the IT infrastructure of the online platform. The new data center uses direct free cooling technology: the servers are cooled with outside air without the use of refrigeration equipment. This allows you to reduce the amount of electricity consumption.

• Private specialists and companies in the service sector earned about 16 trillion rubles during the period from April 2022 to March 2023, which corresponds to about 10% of Russia’s GDP in 2022. The construction sector leads in terms of artist revenue, the health and beauty industry in terms of number of artists, and the transportation services category in terms of number of orders.

• Cloud infrastructure provider and data center operator Selectel has begun preparations for an initial public offering, Kommersant learns. Analysts estimate the company at 40-50 billion rubles.

technology and media

• Yandex has implemented the new generation YandexGPT language model in the virtual assistant Alice. At the expense of the neural network, Alice was taught to write texts and offer ideas. The neural network built into the voice assistant was trained on Yandex supercomputers.

• Russian companies will be able to legally continue to use foreign software by transferring money to a special account. Part of the funds will go to finance preferential IT loans for developers.

• Renaissance Insurance’s Budu online health management service has launched a marketplace for medical services. In the first stage, laboratory tests and check-ups will be presented on the platform. In the near future, various diagnostic methods, visits to doctors, purchase of medicines and dietary supplements will also appear.

• The number of active users of mobile games in Russia in five years will grow by a third, to 35 million. The average amount Russians spend on mobile games will also increase, from the current $59 per year to $67, RBC writes.
• The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service was requested to verify the legality of the provision of microcredit services by mobile operators. Russians fear that if their phone is lost or stolen without their consent, strangers may get loans.