Rum Beats Tequila in Growing Spirits Market
Rum sales in Russia rose by 20 percent in 2013, compared with the previous year, while Tequila sales slumped 9 percent, according to international wine and spirits market researcher IWSR.
The Russian spirits market grew by 11 percent to $21.8 billion last year, though the volume of spirits sold only increased 0.2 percent to 3.24 billion liters.
Eight-million of those liters were rum, but only 4.2 million liters were tequila.
Sales of Cachaca, a spirit made from sugarcane juice that is extremely popular in Brazil, rose by 30.8 percent to 39,000 liters last year.
IWSR also lowered its growth forecast for the import of spirits to Russia for 2014 to 3.1 percent. (MT)
Eurasia Mining Plans Buyout of Anglo American Platinum Stake in Platinum Joint Venture
Eurasia Mining, which operates gold and platinum group metals projects in Russia, said it would buy out partner Anglo American Platinum's stake in their platinum mining joint venture.
The miner said its unit Eurasia Investments Ltd, or EIL, would buy the 50 percent stake it does not already own in Urals Alluvial Platinum, or UAP, from RPM Cyprus.
The agreement is conditional on RPM Cyprus and members of the Anglo American Platinum group getting approval from the South African exchange control, Eurasia Mining said Friday.
The UAP joint venture was started by RPM Cyprus and EIL in August 2003. (Reuters)
Yota to Sell SIM Cards Allowing Smartphones to Be Used as Bank Cards
Russian mobile broadband services provider Yota will start selling SIM cards this summer that allow subscribers use their smartphones as bank cards, Gazeta.ru reported, citing a company press release.
The SIM cards will have built-in NFC-modules and will support digital signatures, which enables smartphones to be used to pay for travel on public transport and other services that support NFC — a short-range wireless link that can transfer data between two devices held a few centimeters from each other.
Yota, which began as a company offering mobile 4G Internet services with USB routers, has recently expanded into smartphone manufacturing and telecommunications services. The company released its YotaPhone smartphone in 2013. In April, it became Russia's fourth mobile operator.
Yota is a trademark of Skartel, which was bought by MegaFon in April. (MT)
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