The Ministry of Finance will oblige to pre-install RuStore app store on smartphones, and Rosstat has tentatively estimated GDP growth in the first quarter at 3.5% – these and other important news for Thursday morning, May 19, in our daily review.

The Russian business of McDonald’s, which earlier announced the sale of assets, may get one of the major franchisees of the chain. The Bell writes about this, citing its own sources “following the fate of the company”. The buyer could be “SPP” of Nursultan Nazarbayev’s relative or “GID” of Novokuznetsk businessman Alexander Govor.

The Ministry of Finance has submitted to the government a law “on a unified application store”. It assumes that RuStore will be included in the list of software mandatory for pre-installation on smartphones and tablets, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

Rosstat tentatively estimated GDP growth in the first quarter of 2022 at 3.5%. In the sectoral breakdown, passenger turnover, mining and manufacturing industries grew the most, the agency said in a statement.

The parent company of Tinkoff Bank, TCS Group, reported “key results” for the first quarter, but decided not to disclose specific figures. The company reported lower profits in annual and quarterly terms, as well as growth in its customer base, which helped to increase total revenue.

MTS is discussing the purchase of ivi, Russia’s largest online movie theater by revenue, Kommersant reports, citing sources. According to them, MTS has been negotiating for several months.