Page 8 - bne_Magazine_September_2018

8 I The Month That Was bne September 2018
Business
Eastern Europe
With the bulk of the harvest in, Ukraine is on course to collect the same 60mn tonnes of grain that it brought in last year. The harvest of grain in Ukraine in 2017 was 61.3mn tonnes.
Russian oil producers have already returned oil production to record levels this year and will boost crude production next year thanks to the launch of several greenfield projects, OPEC said. Russian oil production has increased recently to a record 11.2mn barrels a day. OPEC expects that average oil production in Russia will be 11.15mn barrels per day in 2018 and 11.17mn barrels daily in 2019.
Russian metal giant Norilsk Nickel reported strong 1H18 financial results on the back of booming commodity pric- es, the company said on August 13. The top line grew 37% y/y to $5.8bn on the back of higher metals prices, increased production volumes of copper and PGM sales.
RusAgro reports a 8% fall in revenues but a 50% jump in EBITDA for 2018 on falling costs. Russian agricultural powerhouse RusAgro reported 2Q18 IFRS results that showed EBITDA margins rose across all divisions, with the overall figure at 23.1%, compared with 14.3% a year ago, as EBITDA reached RUB4.1bn, up 50% y/y. This came despite an 8% y/y decrease in consolidated revenues to RUB17.5bn.
Central Europe
Polish demand for mortgage loans grew 20% y/y in July, the Credit
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Information Bureau (BIK) reported. The growth comes 2.8pp above the annual expansion rate recorded in June. The healthy interest in mortgages is under- pinned by the strong Polish economy and tightening labour market, which is driving up wages.
The output of Hungary's construc- tion sector jumped 28.2% y/y in June, rising at the fastest rate since January, driven by an upswing in EU-funded infra- structure developments, data released
by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) on August 10 show.
Dutch insurance company Aegon will sell its assets in Czechia and Slovakia to Dutch group NN, the company said. The value of the transaction is esti- mated to be €155mn (CZK4bn). The deal shouldn’t have any impact on the custom- ers, Aegon said.
Czech company Motorpal developing injectors, injection pumps, nozzles and similar products clinched a deal with Indian company Ashok Leyland producing lorries and busses worth CZK1bn (€39mn), the company said. The contract is a long-term supply agreement and the Czech firm plans to hire around 100 new people.
Major Czech steelworks ArcelorMit- tal Ostrava (AMO) increased its net profit in 2017 by CZK1.8bn (€70mn) year-on-year to CZK3.2bn, the company said – a 146% increase y/y. The main growth driver was from selling off stakes in subsidiary companies like ArcelorMit- tal Tubular Products Ostrava and parent companies like ArcelorMittal Tubular Products Karvina.
Southeast Europe
Sberbank’s CFO reassured investors on August 13 that “work on closing [the disposal] deal [for Turkey’s Den- izbank] is going according to plan”, and the price remains within the previ- ously announced range. The current
economic turmoil in Turkey has raised concerns over the sale of Denizbank to Emirates NBD in a deal due to be closed in the second half of 2018.
Rompetrol Rafinare, the refinery controlled by KazMunayGas (KMG) in Romania, boosted its operations and the total throughput for Petromidia refinery was up 27.44% y/y to 3.08mn tonnes. The refining capacity utilization was 98.45%, 28.05% greater compared to the same period last year.
UK-based Vast Resources, an AIM- listed mining company announced
on August 15 that it has acquired an indirect 29.41% interest in the Blueberry Project in Romania, which owns the highly prospective polymetallic deposits, located in the Golden Quadrilateral in the western part of the country.
Eurasia
Kazakhstan’s oil output grew by 6.1% y/y to 59.1mn tonnes in the first seven months of 2018, according to the State Statistics Committee. The increase was mostly driven by an ongoing accelera- tion in the output of the giant Kashagan field, which boosted its output 77.1% to 6.2mn tonnes in the first half of the year.
One of the largest independent oil traders, Vitol, is hoping to gain access to exports of petrochemicals and light oil from Kazakhstan as the country's output of these products is set to rise thanks to the completion of modernisa- tion works at its three refineries, trading sources told on Reuters on August 15.
The number of Kazakh property deals grew by 3.6% m/m to 22,980 in July, according to the statistical office. In the January-July period, property deals jumped by 8.2% y/y to 142,084, due
to Kazakh GDP growth of 4% in 2017, improving significantly from the 1% growth seen in 2016.