Page 8 - BNE_magazine_10_2019 kolomoisky

8 I The Month That Was bne October 2019
Business
Eastern Europe
The joint venture of Russian internet major and Uber Yandex.Taxi is valued at $7.7bn-$8.5bn by Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lync, and Sberbank CIB. The valuation
is almost on par with Yandex itself, which at $12.4bn valuation remains the most valuable Russian digital company. Yandex.Taxi is likely to sell new shares in an IPO.
Russian e-commerce kept growing fast in the first half of this year, reaching RUB725bn ($11bn), up 26% from H1 2018. During this period, 191mn orders were processed by Russian sites, up 44% year-on-year. This is the strongest growth rate ever recorded and the volume of orders for this semester equalled that of the full year of 2016.
DP Eurasia, which runs Domino’s Pizza brand in Turkey and Russia, posted a 15.1% gain in first-half core profit. However, the company noted
that slower like-for-like sales growth in Russia and rising competition in Moscow dented margins. Domino’s is the largest pizza delivery chain in Turkey and the third largest in Russia.
Central Europe
Tourist traffic in Estonia grew 4%
y/y to 524,000 in July. Tourist traffic figures eased their growth rate in July in comparison to an expansion of 9% y/y the preceding month. Overall, 195,000 domestic tourists travelled in Estonia in July, while the number of foreign visitors came in at 328,000, Statistics Estonia said.
Production of passenger cars in the Czech Republic returned to 2018 record numbers in the first eight months of this year, with 941,758 cars produced, just 173 cars fewer than were produced in the same period in 2018 results, according to data released by the Car Importers Association (CIA).
Czechia’s richest man Petr Kellner’s PPF Group acquired a minority 19.2% stake in British biotechnology company Autolus Therapeutics. Autolus shares are listed on the US Nasdaq exchange and currently trade at around $13 per share.
The EU Court of Justice (ECJ) has quashed a 2016 decision by the European Commission granting Russia’s Gazprom expanded use of
a German pipeline. The politically charged ruling could restrict Gazprom's sales in Europe, which have already seen a slump this year, and also undermine its controversial Nord Stream 2 project.
The Czech utility group CEZ will begin the process of selling assets in Romania in October and wants the transfer to be finalised or close to completion in 2022.The move came after CEZ’s Italian peer Enel launched similar procedures for its assets in Romania.
ArcelorMittal, with almost half of the money earmarked for Romania’s largest steep plant located in Galati, to maintain capacity, expand product ranges and make more higher quality products.
Romania’s construction sector boasted 41% annual growth in July. Civil engineering works returned to normal levels after two disappointing years (2017-2018) while works on residential projects doubled from
the levels seen in the years after the recession (2010-2014).
Bulgaria’s state-owned gas network operator Bulgartransgaz said it
has signed an agreement for the construction of the Turkish Stream extension in the country with a consortium comprising Saudi Arabia's Arkad Engineering and Construction Company and Italy-registered Arkad ABB.
Eurasia
Empire Food Kazakhstan has launched a meat processing complex worth KZT2.9bn (€6.8mn) in the Almaty region. The new meat processing plant’s annual capacity is 8,000 tonnes and will start exporting 640 tonnes of meat to Iran, as well a China.
General director of Russian international online store Wildberries Tatyana Bakalchuk said the company is interested in constructing trade and logistics centres in Kazakhstan and promoting Kazakh producers on the Wildberries website, the Kazakh prime minister’s website announced.
Southeast Europe
Turkey’s Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said the German Trade Ministry suggests that Volkswagen has chosen Turkey for a €1bn plant investment. Turkey and Bulgaria are the potential candidates for the VW investment.
House sales in Turkey rose 5.1% y/y in August following seven consecutive months of decline, Turkish statistics agency TUIK said. The pick-up in sales followed on the heels of the central bank slashing its key interest rate by 425 bp.
Chinese telecommunication equipment producer Huawei expressed concerns about Romania possibly banning telecoms companies using its products from the 5G licenses auction, and sent an envoy to Bucharest for talks.
Liberty Steel plans to invest more than €400mn in five years into the seven European plants it recently bought from
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