Page 8 - bne_June 060618

8 I The Month That Was bne June 2018
Business
Eastern Europe
The third stage of Yamal liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant of Russia's independent gas major Novatek will be launched in December 2018 or January 2019, the company said.
Russia is on track to bring in yet another solid grain harvest of 116.9mn tonnes after collecting a record-high harvest of 134mn tonnes in 2017, according to estimates from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Grain exports are also expected to double from last year’s $20bn.
Russia has finally lifted the ban on Turkish tomatoes that were imposed as a punishment after Turkey shot down a Russian bomber that strayed into Turkish airspace for 17 seconds over in November 2016.
Russia’s state-owned gas monopo- list Gazprom shipped as much gas
to Europe in the last months as it usually ships in the depths of win- ter, according to Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman. Gazprom shipped
a record monthly supply of 19.6bn cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Europe in March.
Troubled Chinese private firm China Energy Company (CEFC) is out of
the deal to acquire 14.16% stake in Russia's largest oil company Rosneft, oil trader Glencore said on May 4. CEFC was rocked by investigations at home and missed the April 1 deadline to pay a €1.5bn instalment.
Central Europe
Tourist visits in Estonia grew 5% y/y to 239,000 in March, Statistics Estonia announced. The number of visits from foreign tourists grew 5% y/y, picking up speed from a growth of just 2% y/y in February.
ArcelorMittal has hired Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to sell a num-
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ber of its steel assets to secure antitrust clearance to acquire Italian peer Ilva.
As a concession to EU regulators for its €1.8bn bid for Ilva, the steelmaker in March also offered to sell its galvanized steel plant in Italy, as well as units in the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Romania, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Hungary’s tourism industry continues robust growth in March after a record month in February. The number of guest nights at commercial accommodations rose by an annual 13.1% to 2,053,000 in March, beating estimates.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Montenegro increased by 30.5% y/y to 27,869 in March, after going up by 29.1% y/y in February, the statistics office reported. Montenegro is expecting tourism revenue to exceed €1.5bn a year by 2026.
Atrium European Real Estate Limited exited the Romanian market, selling its Atrium Militari shopping centre in Bucharest to MAS Real Estate Inc. for €95mn. The company is refocusing on Poland and the Czech Republic.
Romania’s Banca Transilvania Finan- cial Group has reached an agreement to sell its BT Operational Leasing to Autonom for an undisclosed amount, the lender announced. The group owns Romania’s second-largest bank, Banca Transilvania (BT), and is exiting a non- core business.
Serbia’s Commission for the Protec- tion of Competition has issued an approval to AIK banka to raise its stake in the small Slovenian lender Gorenjska banka from the current 20.99%, business portal Ekapija report- ed sourcing Beta news agency. AIK has moved a step closer to taking the bank over.
Eurasia
Trump’s nuclear deal pullout endan- gers Iran’s plans to source $200bn of investment for its oil, gas and petro- chemical industries and wrecks its move to spend $38bn on Boeing and Airbus aircraft purchases. Airbus uses US parts so needs American licensing. French energy major Total, Volkswagen, Peugeot maker PSA Group and Siemens are other companies affected.
Government-owned Iran Tobacco Company (ITC) signed an agreement with an Iranian firm representing Philip Morris International (PMI) to produce Marlboro cigarettes.
Sandor Csanyi, the top man at the helm of Hungary’s largest lender, OTP, retained his top position as the country’s richest man for the seventh straight year. OTP’s chairman-CEO has systematically built up OTP during his 26 years at the helm to make it one of the largest and most profitable in the CEE region.
Southeast Europe
Global online retailer Amazon will open its second development cen- tre in Romania. The new centre will be at the Globalworth Campus in northern Bucharest, while its
first was in the eastern city of Iasi.
Macedonia expects €100mn to be invested in medical cannabis produc- tion, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said. Medical cannabis products were legal- ised in Macedonia in 2016, and cannabi- diol (CBD) hemp oils are already for sale in local pharmacies.