Page 8 - bne_Magazine_September_2017

8 I The Month That Was bne September 2017 Business
Central Europe
The number of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) regis- tered in Poland grew just over 16.6% y/y in July, according to market monitoring firm Samar – the strongest growth in the seventh month of the year this century.
The Czech Republic’s second city Brno is the highest ranked city in the CEE/ CIS region on Nestpick’s latest Startup Cities Index. Like other countries from the CEE/CIS region, Brno’s score is pushed up by low costs like labour, but it also scores well on factors such as safety, income tax and vacation days.
Slovenian car industry supplier Cimos
is closing plants in Bosnia and Serbia as part of its restructuring plan. The restructuring was launched after strug- gling Cimos was acquired in May by TCH Cogeme, a subsidiary of Italian fund Palladio Finanziaria.
Southeast Europe
Turkish carmaker Ford Otosan announced it will increase the annual production capacity of its Golcuk plant from 290,000 to 330,000 units in order "to meet increasing export demand”. The capacity expansion will cost $52mn and it is planned for completion in September 2018.
UK DIY retailer Kingfisher acquired Romanian DIY chain Praktiker Roma- nia. The deal will help Kingfisher, the parent company of Praktiker’s rival Brico Depot Romania, increase its presence
on the Romanian DIY market, which is dominated by local Dedeman.
Russian oil companies Gazprom Neft and Lukoil are to receive 8.5% and 3% stakes in struggling Serbian petrochem- ical company HIP Petrohemija, respec- tively, after the company debt restructur- ing. The deal stipulates that 52% of the company debt will be converted to equity, and the remainder written off.
Eastern Europe
Anadolu Efes and Anheuser Busch InBev will merge their businesses in Russia and Ukraine. The announce- ment follows Belgium-headquartered AB InBev's acquisition of a 24% stake
in Anadolu Efes as part of the former's combination with SABMiller, which com- pleted in October 2016. The motive was consolidation due to falling beer sales.
Russia is expected to maintain its title as the largest exporter of grain in the world and could break its all-time harvest record this year. The Moscow-based con- sultant ProZerno expects Russia to harvest of 130.7mn tonnes of grain this year, up from the 119mn tones last year and sig- nificantly more than the official forecast of 110mn tonnes by the agricultural ministry.
Russia's internet services giant Yan- dex and its largest state-owned bank Sberbank announced they are creat- ing a joint e-commerce venture based on the Yandex.Market marketplace platform, the companies announced on August 9. Sberbank is set to invest about $500mn into the joint venture that val- ues Yandex.Market at RUB60bn ($1bn).
Eurasia
France’s Renault signed a €660mn JV auto production deal in Iran with the state-run Industrial Development and Renovation Organisation (IDRO) and private company Parto Negin Naseh Group (Negin Khodro). It should boost Renault’s Iran annual capacity by 150,000 vehicles to 350,000.
Beijing Construction Engineering Group is to build a $250mn DIY hypermarket in east Tehran in a
deal with Iran’s Civil Servants Pension Organisation. Iran’s retail environment is underdeveloped, especially in the DIY sector. The traditional bazaar remains the destination for people looking for construction materials and paint.
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