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The Regions This Week
March 22, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
Southeast Europe
Mass anti-government protests took place in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia. After four months of weekly events, protests in Serbia turned violent for the first time, as demonstrators forced their way into the state broadcaster. In Tirana, opposition supporters tried to storm the parliament but were forced back by riot police.
A Romanian businessman inaugurated a single metre of motorway to demand better infrastructure. The first metre of motorway in eastern and northeastern Romania was built, at his own expense, by Stefan Mandachi, the owner of the Spartan fast-food chain.
The financial woes of Turkey’s Dogus Holding are getting worse even as the Turkish owner of the Salt Bae steakhouse chain goes on a selling spree to help restructure debt, according to Bloomberg. The Istanbul-based investment-holding group, controlled by Turkish billionaire Ferit Sahenk, has been disposing mainly of hotels over the past year as part of a December agreement with lenders to renegotiate the terms on $2.5bn of debt.
Serbia’s AIK Banka completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Slovenia’s Gorenjska banka. With the acquisition of Gorenjska banka, AIK will become the first Serbian bank to step into the European Union market.
The appeal court in The Hague gave former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic
a lifetime prison sentence, ruling that the gravity of his crimes is too much for the previous sentence of 40 years in prison. The sentence is final and cannot be appealed.
Job creation slowed in the Western Balkans,
a report from the World Bank and wiiw showed. The region generated around 68,000 new jobs between the second quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of 2018, compared to 231,000
a year earlier. In contrast, GDP growth in accelerated to 3.9% in 2018 from 2.5% in 2017.
Members of Croatia's ruling coalition failed
to decide if troubled shipbuilding group
Uljanik should undergo restructuring or file for bankruptcy. A decision should be made within a few days. Economy Minister Darko Horvat estimates that restructuring Uljanik would cost €930mn.
Russia recognised Macedonia under its new name, North Macedonia. Moscow previously raised doubts about the legitimacy of the name change that will pave the way for the Balkan country to join the EU and Nato.
Production in recession-hit Turkey’s automotive sector fell 14% y/y in the January-February period, the latest output data from the country’s Automotive Industry Association (OSD) showed. Total automotive exports declined 8%, while automobile exports contracted 14%, the OSD said.
Bulgarian holding company Doverie-Invest won the tender to buy a 63.8% stake in Moldova’s Moldindconbank (MICB) for MDL764mn (€57.6mn), the Moldovan Public Property Agency said. The deal continues a series of purchases of stakes in major Moldova banks by international investors.
Montenegro's will issue five-year and seven- year T-bonds for a combined €190mn in April, aiming to secure funds for the state budget. In its 2019 budget plan, the government has said that it will fund the expected 2.97% of GDP deficit mainly with local securities.
Romanian multimedia sharing platform Trilulilu was put up for sale. Cluj-Napoca based Trilulilu is the biggest user-generated content (UGC) website in Romania on which users can view, upload and share videos, images and audio files.