Page 8 - BNE_magazine_05_2019

8 I The Month That Was bne May 2019
Business
Eastern Europe
The Chinese AliExpress e-commerce major will open its global platform for Russian vendors. Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba and its international AliExpress and the Chinese domestic electronic payment Tmall platforms are forming a strategic partnership with Mail.ru. The joint venture will give Russian vendors access to the global market and is
a potential game changer.
Prices for luxury apartments in Mos- cow hit a three-year high. The average price per square meter on the primary market for premium apartments in Moscow in the first quarter of 2019 amounted to RUB815,000, or 12% more than a year ago, says Knight Frank.
But luxury prices were up by 22% to RUB1.06mn per square meter.
One of Russia's "big four" operators MobileTeleSystems (MTS) is consid- ering the acquisition of “the Russian Netflix,” online cinema provider ivi, the market leader with a 36% share, for RUB20bn ($309mn).
Russia's largest bank state-controlled Sberbank gained control over the Centre of Speech Technologies (CRT) speech and face recognition devel- oper, buying 51% from Gazprombank- affiliated companies. Reportedly Digital Horizon venture fund will also get a 10% share in the company.
Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom might have to rely on Linde industrial group to supply technology for its Baltic LNG plant after Shell has pulled out of the project. Recently Gazprom has considerably upgraded the project of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) ter- minal Baltic LNG on the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, but also confirmed that its main partner Royal Dutch Shell would be quitting the project.
Central Europe
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's son-in-law will build a luxury hotel in central Budapest. Istvan Tiborcz’s BDPST Group obtained a per- mit to renovate a city block in the centre of Budapest and to construct a luxury hotel and premium apartments, in a project that has been declared an invest- ment of key importance to the national economy.
Slovakian energy company Slovenske Elektrarne expects further delays
in launching its third and fourth blocks of Mochovice nuclear power plant in Nitra region, online Novinky.
cz reported. The blocks were planned to be launched by 2013 at a cost of €2.8bn. Now the cost will be €270mn higher than expected.
Hungary's construction sector output grew 48% y/y in February, its fastest pace on record, up from 29% growth in January, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said. Output increased by 6.7% compared to the previous month. In
the first two months of 2019, construc- tion sector output climbed 39.0% to HUF444bn (€1.38bn).
Slovakia’s Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry launched a Green Diesel project aiming at making crop and animal production more effi- cient and Slovak farmers more competi- tive, according to the Agriculture Minis- ter Gabriela Matecna (Slovak National Party, SNS), daily Sme.sk reported.
Southeast Europe
Turkey’s biggest refiner Tupras won
a 5-year tender to supply jet fuel to Istanbul’s new mega airport. In a filing with the Borsa Istanbul, Tupras said that it is to sell 1.8mn tonnes of jet fuel each year at Istanbul Airport. Some fuel sales had already been processed, it added.
General Electric is interested in par- ticipating in Bulgaria’s project to build the Belene nuclear power plant, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said. The Bulgarian government plans to re-launch the Belene nuclear power plant project and is looking for foreign investors.
Czech carmaker Skoda Auto is decid- ing between Bulgaria and Turkey for a new factory with an annual capac-
ity of 350,000 vehicles, Czech daily Hospodarske noviny reported. Skoda will reportedly make its Karoq SUV and the Seat Ateca SUV there from around 2023.
Eurasia
Russia resumed importing natural gas from Turkmenistan following a three- year break, Gazprom confirmed. Should the imports prove to be of a sizable volume, they could turn out to be some- thing of a breakthrough for the remote country’s long-embattled economy.
A US probe into Kazakh and Russian uranium imports was submitted to the White House. The probe was initi- ated by a petition filed by two US ura- nium mining companies, Ur-Energy and Energy Fuels, as they complained that subsidised foreign competitors, such
as Russia and Kazakhstan, have caused them to cut capacity and lay off workers.
China Machinery Engineering signed a $545mn contract with Tajikistan’s state-run aluminium producer Talco on an electrolytic aluminium production line rehabilitation project with a full capacity of 300 kilotonnes per annum.
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