French Societe Generale Bank withdraws from Russia by selling Rosbank stake. stock jump 5%
France’s Societe Generale announced plans to exit Russia.
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French bank Societe Generale It agreed to sell its stake in Rosbank and the insurance companies of the Russian lender to Interros Capital, an investment company founded by Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin.
The bank’s exit from Russia comes after mounting pressure to follow the lead of other Western companies in the wake of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Societe Generale She said In a statement, it would write off €2 billion ($2.1 billion) from the net book value of divested activities and an exceptional non-cash item without any impact on the group’s €1.1 billion capital ratio.
Societe Generale shares are up nearly 5% during morning trading in London.
– Sam Meredith
The UK fears that Russia may use phosphorous munitions in the besieged city of Mariupol in Ukraine
The British Ministry of Defense said that Russian bombing continues in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces were seen “repelling several attacks that destroyed Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery equipment”.
The ministry warned Russian forces that the prior use of phosphorous munitions in the Donetsk region “raises the possibility of their future employment in Mariupol as the fighting for the city intensifies.”
It also said that “Russia’s continued reliance on unguided bombs reduces its ability to distinguish when to target and conduct strikes, while significantly increasing the risk of further civilian casualties.”
– Sam Meredith
War to cut Ukraine’s GDP by more than 45%, World Bank forecasts
Ears of wheat in a field near the village of Hrybiny in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, July 17, 2020.
Valentin Ogirenko | Reuters
Ukraine’s economic output is likely to shrink by a staggering 45.1 percent this year, the World Bank said on Sunday, in a new assessment of the economic effects of the war, as the Russian invasion shut down businesses, curtailed exports and destroyed production capacity.
The World Bank also predicted that Russia’s GDP for 2022 would fall by 11.2% due to the punishment of financial sanctions imposed by the United States and its Western allies on Russian banks, state-owned enterprises and other institutions.
The World Bank’s Eastern Europe region, which includes Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, is expected to show a GDP contraction of 30.7% this year, due to shocks from the war and disruption to trade.
As for Ukraine, the World Bank report estimates that more than half of the country’s businesses are closed, while others remain open and operate at significantly less than normal capacity. The closure of sea freight from Ukraine has cut off about 90% of the country’s grain exports and half of its total exports.
– Reuters