Page 6 - bne_Magazine_February_2019

6 I The Month That Was bne February 2019
Business
Eastern Europe
Billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev plans
to open the first permanent Cirque du Soleil stage in Moscow's Skolkovo industrial park, with the first shows scheduled for 2019, but the extravagant Canadian circus has already drawn com- plaints from the cultural establishment.
Sistema Venture Capitals, the venture fund of multi-industry investment conglomerate AFK Sistema, acquired 7% in Russian online retailer Ozon and became its third largest share- holder with 16.3% stake after Baring Vostok Capital Partners (39.16%) and MTS mobile major (18.69%). Previous reports claimed that Ozon seeks to raise over $200mn in equity to support new investments in logistics and IT.
Russia's online apparel retailer Wild- berries will become the largest online retailer in Russia with the RUB120bn ($1.8bn) it expects to earn in 2018,
a surge of 74% year-on-year, Kommer- sant daily said on December 17.
Another major e-commerce play-
er Ozon.ru plans to grow 70-80% to RUB70bn revenues. For Ozon.ru, the main obstacle to growth is the fulfilment programme, the representatives of the company told the daily.
The Russian market for new cars amounted to a record RUB2.38 trillion ($35bn) in 2018, exceeding the previ- ous high of RUB2.37 trillion set in 2013, research agency Avtostat said.
Central Europe
Czech car manufacturer Skoda Auto delivered a record 1.25mn vehicles in 2018, a 4.4% increase y/y over
the 1,200,500 cars in 2017, thanks to high sales of the Kodaiq and Karoq SUV models, the company said. Skoda Octavia remains the brand’s bestseller.
Ten former employees of Danske Bank’s Estonian branch were detained, the first arrests made in the Baltic country since a massive money-laundering scandal was revealed. Around €200bn worth of pay- ments channeled through the Danish bank’s Estonian branch are being investigated.
Lithuania will buy a floating liquefied natural gas terminal for an estimated €308mn. Lawmakers voted overwhelm- ingly in favour of buying the terminal that has been providing gas to the coun- try since 2014 from its position off the Lithuanian coast.
Modus Group, the owner of Lithuania- based CityBee, is positioning the com- pany as one of the biggest car-sharing services in Europe with a major invest- ment into its fleet planned for 2019. The company has just launched a tender to buy over 5,000 new cars, roughly five times as many as its current fleet, following a reported €110mn investment by Modus.
Southeast Europe
The European Commission fined state- owned energy firm Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and its gas infrastructure subsidiary Bulgartransgaz €77.1mn for blocking the access of its competitors
to key gas infrastructure in Bulgaria, thereby breaching EU antitrust rules.
Slovenia expects another record year for tourism, according to Economy Min- ister Zdravko Pocivalsek, sloveniatimes. com reported. The country expects to record more than 5.6mn tourist arrivals and more than 15.2mn tourist.
Public road company CNAIR signed
a RON272.4mn (€58mn) contract with Tirrena Scavi for the design and construc- tion of the new Timisoara ring road in western Romania. Timisoara is one of the biggest cities in Romania which in recent years has attracted important investors, thanks to its location, close to the border with Hungary, and qualified work force.
Traffic on flag carrier Croatia Airlines increased 2% last year to hit a record 2.16mn passengers, Total Croatia News reported. Passenger traffic on interna- tional flights rose 3% to 1.64mn last year, while traffic on domestic flights remained unchanged on the year at 526,578 passengers.
Eurasia
BP believes it may be sitting on another giant gas field in the Azer- baijani Caspian Sea, according to
Gary Jones, BP’s regional president
for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, Bloomberg reported. BP intends to drill six new exploration wells in Azerbaijan by 2020, and expectations prove realistic the company could find a new gas play that’s about the same size as Shah Deniz, a field in the Caspian Sea as large as Manhattan.
The first trucks set off on the Lapis Lazuli trade corridor linking Afghani- stan with Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Europe. Trucks carry- ing dried fruit, herbs and textiles were bound for Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey as the new interna- tional trade route was inaugurated by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Italy’s Eni and US company GE Renew- able Energy have launched construc- tion works on the 48MW Badamsha Wind Farm in Kazakhstan. Badamsha, located in Aktobe Region, marks Eni’s first large-scale investment in wind power and GE’s first onshore wind plant in Kazakhstan.
www.bne.eu