Page 3 - bne_newspaper_June_28_2019

The Regions This Week
June 28, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
Central Europe
German retailer Metro turned down an offer from Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky and Slovak investor Patrik Tkac. The retailer released a brief statement saying that ”the board of Metro strongly believes that the offer €16 for per ordinary share and €13.8 for preferential shares significantly undervalue the whole company and doesn’t reflect its plan of value development.”
Work finished on laying a gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia across the Baltic Sea. The €300mn pipeline will help the two countries reduce their dependence on Russian gas.
Poland’s reform of the Supreme Court violated EU law, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said. The reforms lowered judges’ retirement age and gave President Andrzej Duda the right to decide new nominations.
The Czech government of Prime Minster Andrej Babis survived a vote of no-confidence in the Chamber of Deputies. The junior coalition partner Social Democrats came to the Chamber already decided to support their PM. The Communists abstained in the vote.
Latvia's producer price index (PPI) grew 3.1% y/y in May, data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) showed. The annual expansion came in at 0.7pp below the annual reading
in April, but still pushed the duration of the PPI growth series to 27 months.
The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) kept interest rates unchanged at 0.9% and left the O/N deposit rate on hold at -0.05% following a monetary policy meeting. The MNB, one of the most dovish central banks in the region, has kept the base rate unchanged since 2016, having also introduced unconventional measures to maintain
ultra-loose policies. The Hungarian central bank has been reluctant to wind down these tools despite rising inflation and policy normalisation taken by other central banks.
Bulgarian financial and insurance group Eurohold hopes to complete the acquisition of the local assets of Czech energy company CEZ by the end of the year and intends to invest millions in their upgrade, public broadcaster BNT reported. CEZ decided to leave the country over long-standing disputes with the Bulgarian authorities.
German energy company E.ON offered to sell several assets in Central Europe to overcome the concerns of the European Commission over its bid for competitor Innogy’s network and retail assets, as reported by Reuters. Amongst the assets
E.ON is considering selling are part of its retail business in Hungary, its Innogy’s retail electricity and gas activities in Czechia as well as 260,000 heating customers, the operation of recharging stations for electric cars and Autobahn motorway network in Germany,
German industrial group Thyssenkrupp announced plans to invest €50mn in a new automotive components plant in the Hungarian town of Pecs. Hungary, along with the other V4 countries, has become a major centre for the automotive industry, both assembling cars and supplying components to manufacturers in other European countries.
Lithuanian industrial production grew 0.8% y/y in May on a calendar-adjusted basis, according to data from Statistics Lithuania. The reading marks a slowdown of as many as 13pp in the annual growth rate after output grew 13.8% in annual terms in April.