Page 8 - bne_December 2017_20171204

8 I The Month That Was bne December 2017
Business
Eastern Europe
Total spending on Internet advertising in Russia was more than spending on TV advertising for the first time ever in January-September 2017. The total online spend amounted to RUB115- 116bn ($2bn), up by 23% year-on-year, according to a survey by the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (ACAR).
Sales of new passenger cars and LCVs in Russia increased by 17.3% y/y in October, the Association of European Business, which follows the market, said in a press release on November
9. In total, 148,597 units were sold in October, and 1,277,938 in the January- October period.
The number of Russians holidaying abroad has recovered and has almost passed its pre-crisis peak. In January- June 17.1mn Russian tourists went abroad, up by 30% year-on-year, accord- ing to Rosstat. Russian outbound tourist trips peaked at 42.9mn in 2014, before dropping by 19% and 9% y/y in 2015 and 2016 due to ruble devaluation.
Central Europe
to local media. Talks are informal at the moment as Time Warner has not yet announced its plans to sell the TV station but it is reportedly expecting €2bn for the acquisition.
UK employee benefits company Edenred bought Slovakia’s third- largest provider of meal vouchers, Vasa Slovensko, becoming the market leader in the country. Edenred has been operating in Slovakia since 1994.
Southeast Europe
The largest wind farm project in
the Western Balkans will receive a €215mn loans from the EBRD and IFC. The Cibuk wind farm in Serbia will help the country meet its commitment to pro- duce 27% of domestic power needs from renewable energy sources by 2020.
Romania’s largest private healthcare provider MedLife agreed to buy its competitor Polisano medical services. The acquisition will help Medlife, which carried out an IPO last year, to further strengthen its position on the Romanian private medical services market.
Eurasia
Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas sold the small Euro-Asia Air airline as part of the country's ongoing privatisation programme. The government plans to privatise stakes of at least 25% in 45 large state companies including Air Astana and Kazatomprom.
Kazakhstan launched gas exports to China with the transiting of gas from its Beineu-Bozoy-Shymkent pipeline
to the Central Asia-China gas pipeline. State-owned KazTransGas has agreed to supply 5bn cubic metres (cm) of gas to China’s PetroChina for about $1bn.
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Audi is to start serial production of electric motors at its Hungarian plant next year, which will become a manu- facturing hub for the Volkswagen group. The entire drivetrain of Audi's first purely electric-powered SUV model will come from the factory in Gyor starting in 2018.
Hungary-based no-frills airline Wizz Air has set up subsidiary in the UK and is considering acquiring an air operators certificate (AOC) due to the negative impact of Brexit. Central Europe’s largest discount airline will add 100
jobs at its new UK subsidiary at Luton.
Czech Republic-based broadcaster CME could be bought by a group of Slovak and Czech oligarchs, according