Page 8 - BNE_magazine_03_2020 wellness

8 I The Month That Was bne March 2020
Business
Eastern Europe
Express grocery delivery service Yandex.Lavka could be valued at $300mn by the end of 2020 and
break even by 2022, Kommersant
daily reported on February 25 citing
a valuation by Sberbank CIB investment bank. Yandex.Lavka is operating on a “dark store” model and proposes express delivery of groceries within 15 minutes.
In the 2020-2021 agricultural season, Russian sugar plants with combined capacity of 150,000 tonnes could halt production due to a 1.5-fold drop in prices that has been going on for three years.
The Russian government is discussing transferring the functions of the Federal Grid Company (FSK) single executive body to Rosseti (Russian Grid) and the creation of
a common treasury based on the parent structure. The move may be a first step to consolidate Rosseti’s subsidiaries. The grid major controls stakes in regional grid subsidiaries.
Mail.ru Group is developing Smotri Mail.ru (Watch Mail.ru), an online video service to compete with Netflix in Russia and the local leader ivi.ru. The project is still at the beta test stage, according to the company.
Central Europe
Saale Energie GmbH, a subsidiary of EP Power Europe (EPPE) owned by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky´s Energy and Industrial Holding (EPH) announced it will acquire 58% in the German lignite-fired power plant Schkopau from Uniper, according
to EPH's press release published on February 21.
The state-owned utility company CEZ Group and Czech government reached an agreement on the construction of the new unit at the
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Dukovany nuclear plant, said the Czech Minister for Industry and Trade Karel Havlicek, the Civic Security Committee for Nuclear Power Plant Dukovany (OBK) reported on February 18 although the final details are still being worked out.
The number of completed homes in Hungary increased by 20% to 21,000 in 2019, the largest figure in ten years, but new building permits dropped by 4.3% to 35,120 from 2018, according
to February 25 figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Hungarian property developer Cordia on February 17 announced
a buyout offer for the outstanding shares of Polish peer Polnord at a price of PLN3.55 (€0.83) per share. Cordia announced a week earlier that it raised its stake in Polnord from 1.14% to 65.66%, after acquiring almost 63.7mn newly issued shares in the company.
Southeast Europe
Czech investment group PPF owned by the Czech billionaire Petr Kellner signed a letter of intent with Turkish conglomerate Haci Omer Sabanci Holding to acquire
a 50% stake in the Turkish bus manufacturer Temsa in February.
Volkswagen is reportedly again postponing its decision on whether to build a car plant costing more than a billion euros in Turkey. Countries including Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovakia have made it plain they would be prepared to host the factory should VW opt against a location in Turkey.
Homes sales in Turkey surged 56% on an annual basis to hit 114,000 units, thanks to the base effect and cheaper loans. According to data from the country’s statistics authority TUIK, mortgage-financed house sales leapt 546% in the month from a year ago.
British conglomerate GFG Alliance, controlled by Indian investor Sanjeev Gupta, will invest €1bn in its Romanian integrated steel mill
– five times more than the €200mn investments announced last September, when Liberty Steel took over Galati steel mill. The investment is part of a €2bn plan to upgrade plants and reduce emissions.
Eurasia
Some 186 tonnes of saffron – the world’s most costly spice by weight
– worth around $640mn were officially exported by Iran from March to December, according to data from
the Agricultural Ministry says. Saffron
is valued at €10-12 per gram and Iran grows approximately 90% of the world’s saffron.
The Mexico City-based world’s largest breadmaker Grupo Bimbo has signed a deal with Food Town, the exclusive supplier of buns
to McDonald’s in Kazakhstan, to “strengthen its manufacturing footprint” and relationship with quick-service restaurant (QSR) clients in Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Askar Mamin on February 5 met with the CEO of UK-based global communications company OneWeb, which is ready
to launch 34 satellites from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome to create a global satellite network
of 504 satellites in 12 orbit planes
to provide fast internet.
Turkish Ronesans Holding is set
to invest $4.1bn in Uzbekistan’s Almalyk Mining and Metallurgy Company (AMMC) as part of an agreement reached last week during Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev’s meeting with Turkish businessmen in Ankara, the Uzbek presidential press service said.