Page 7 - bne_newspaper_March_23_2018

The Regions This Week
March 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Central Europe
Telenor agreed to sell its subsidiaries
in Bulgaria, Hungary, Montenegro and Serbia to Czech investment group PPF Group for €2.8bn. The transaction is expected to be completed within Q3 2018 and requires regulatory approval.
The Latvian government is planning a new
law that would ban doing business with shell companies, which are a typical way to make money flows hard to trace. Latvia, which over the years has attracted billions of non-resident money from Russia and other post-Soviet countries, has seen cooperation between its banks and shell companies proliferate.
Czech ex-PM Bohuslav Sobotka has decided to leave top-level politics in a move that is a step away from the EU for Czechia, says observers. So- botka was usually calm and moderating in conflicts and welcomed change compared to previous, un- stable governments. Moreover, he is also a sworn critic of populist Andrej Babis, the leader of Ano.
Passenger traffic and handling of goods at Estonian ports grew in 2017, data from Statistics Estonia showed. A record number of nearly 10.9mn passengers travelling on international lines used the Estonian ports last year, which was a growth of 3% versus 2016. Domestic passenger traffic increased 7% to 2.4mn passengers.
Hungary’s Opus Global and Prague-based energy utility EPH acquired a 72.6% stake in Hungary’s second largest power plant Matrai Eromu from Germany’s RWE Power AG and EnBW Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG. Matrai Eromu supplies some 15% of the country's electricity, the most after nuclear power plant Paks.
The debate in the Czech media about a potential ‘Czexit’ worries 78% of companies in Czechia,
a new study by the Czech-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry stated. If Czechia left the EU, 28% of the 150 companies surveyed would consider moving out of the country.
The supervisory board of the Polish state- controlled oil company Lotos dismissed CEO Marcin Jastrzebski. The dismissal is the latest in the new series of changes atop Poland’s state-run companies, which first had their executives culled following the takeover of power by Law and Justice (PiS) in late 2015.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban openly threatened Soros-funded NGOs. The main task before Hungary over the coming years will be to force the "Soros empire" out of the country, Orban said ahead of an EU summit in Brussels.
The Slovak unemployment rate dropped to a historic low of 5.72% in February. The main driver for the fall in unemployment is the relatively strong and stable cyclical growth of the economy.
Czech used car dealer AAA Auto, now renamed Aures Holdings, is preparing for a relisting on the Prague Stock Exchange (PSE). AAA Auto was present on the PSE from 2007 to 2013, but is currently owned by Polish-based private equity group Abris Capital Partners.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Hungary increased by 3.7% y/y in January, and visits by domestic tourists were up by 13% y/y, statistics office KSH reported. This follows a record year
in 2017.
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