Page 8 - BNE_magazine_bne_September 2019

8 I The Month That Was bne September 2019
Business
Eastern Europe
Russian railroad monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) set the date for the auction of Transcontainer container operator for November 27 2019, the company said on August 7. RZD will
put 50% plus 2 shares up for sale at a starting price of RUB36.16bn ($553mn).
Russia's car market contracted for
the forth month in a row in July,
with the sales of new passenger cars
and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) down by 2.4% to 0.14mn units. In the seven months of 2019 the sales also declined by 2.4% to 0.97mn vehicles, according to the data of AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee (AEB AMC).
Russia's largest bank Sberbank is trailing behind other state-controlled systemic banks of BRICS economies in terms of macro profile and loan portfolio quality, but beats the peers in terms of profitability, according to the report of Moody's Investor Service cited by Vedomosti daily on August 6.
Russian fertiliser major EuroChem reported net IFRS profit tripled to $612mn in 1H19, the company said on August 6. The Ebitda of the company increased by 21% y/y to $819mn, while the free cash flow of $136mn was reported versus negative FCF of $41mn a year ago.
Russia's largest advertising groups saw their budgets and turnover decline by 4.5% on average in 2018, Vedomosti daily reported on August 7 citing the study of Sostav.ru and the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (AKAR).
Russia’s Post bank (Pochta Bank) has signed a new deal with a leading Russian supermarket chain Magnit to open branches in its stores, the company said on August 8. The Post Bank has already signed a deal with Magnit’s main rival Pyaterochka that is owned by the X5 Retail Group.
Central Europe
The European Commission has opened an investigation into the proposed acquisition of Polish refiner and fuel company Lotos by peer Orlen over concerns that the merger “may reduce competition in the supply of fuels and related markets” in Poland and the region, the Commission said on August 7. Poland has long said it would like to merge PKN Orlen with Lotos in order to create a strong company with international importance.
The number of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) registered in Poland grew 5.5% y/y in July, market monitoring firm Samar said. In month-on-month terms, sales gained 7.4% in July, after decreasing 4.2% m/m the preceding month.
Erste Bank Hungary's pre-tax profit increased by 22.3% to HUF28.3bn (€86mn) in H1, the Austrian lender announced on August 5. Operating revenues rose by double-digits, while expenditures declined 5%. The reversal of risk provisions was HUF1bn less than in the previous year, chairman-CEO Radován Jelasity said.
Hungary has generated an estimated HUF200-250bn (€610-763mn) since the launch of its online invoicing in July 2018, Finance Minister officials said on August 3. In the last 12 months, the tax office received 50mn invoices and officials launched 15,000 compliance investigations, according to press reports. The government introduced online invoic- ing on transactions where the payable VAT exceeds HUF100,000.
Southeast Europe
Engineers have welded into place 99% of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline’s (TAP’s) onshore section. The pipeline, which runs across Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before terminating
in Italy, is due to start transporting Azerbaijani gas next year.
A total of 4.6mn tourist arrivals were registered in Croatia in July, 0.7% less than in the same month last year.
Montenegro's mobile phone penetration rate increased by 7.9pp year on year to 180.85% at end-June. The total number of subscribers was up by 4.7% y/y at around 1.12mn.
Officials of Austrian group OMV, majority owner of Romanian oil and
gas group OMV Petrom, claimed the company was not notified by its American partner ExxonMobil about exit plans related to the Neptun Deep gas project in the Black Sea.
Eurasia
Chinese company Zhong Ji Mining
suspended operations at Solton-Sary gold mine in Kyrgyzstan after violent clashes between locals and company workers. Dozens were injured after around 500 local residents entered the mine construction site protesting at environmental contamination that they claimed had caused the mass death
of livestock. China had demanded the assailants are punished.
Azerbaijan’s total petrochemical exports are forecast to reach $241mn this year, up from $190mn in 2018. The country is relying on substantial petrochemical investments to diversify its economy away from over-reliance on oil and gas revenues.
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