Page 8 - bneMag bne_December 2020_20201201

8 I The Month That Was bne December 2020
Business
Eastern Europe
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has accused sugar market participants of organising a cartel, naming RusAgro, Prodimex and Dominant as participants. The news comes as the government introduces new anti-trust legislation and changes the head of FAS, signalling a significant policy shift.
Russia's largest food retailer X5
Group maintained its lead as Russia’s biggest e-grocery firm in 9M20 with RUB12.7bn ($165mn) in sales, followed by Utkonos and Sbermarket (RUB11.6bn and RUB11.5bn respectively). Russia’s e-commerce segment is booming.
Russian oil giant Rosneft reported
a net loss in 3Q20, its first loss since 2012, on the back of ruble devaluation and low prices. The company had to make heavy impairments in the first quarter, but rebounded to profit in Q2. The company suffered another loss of RUB64bn ($800mn) in Q3 owing to
a weaker ruble. This compared with
a RUB225bn profit a year earlier.
Calgary-based TIU Canada, a green energy investor in Ukrainian assets, is alleging three Ukrainian oligarchs, Ihor Kolomoisky, Hennadiy Boholyubov and Victor Pinchuk, which it claims are the main shareholders of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, are behind disconnecting the company from the electricity grid located on the plant's premises.
Central Europe
ConocoPhillips and its Polish partner PGNiG have made a “substantial” gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea, with an estimated size of between 8mn and 30mn cubic metres (50-189mn barrels) of recoverable oil equivalent.
Sales of electric cars on the Czech market tripled year-on-year in 10M20 to 1,888 cars, while the number of hybrids sold grew by 43% y/y to 9,474
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cars and the number of plug-in hybrid cars increased from 324 to 1,337.
KKCG Group and Czech betting company Sazka Group announced that global investment fund Apollo Global Management will invest €500mn into a newly established wholly-owned subsidiary of KKCG, Sazka Entertainment AG. Sazka Group is owned by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek. The transaction implies an equity valuation of €4.2bn for Sazka Entertainment and the money will be used to grow the lottery business in Europe and North America.
The Czech mortgage market recorded a decline of 20% in the spring months, but the market began to pick up rapidly before the summer. From May to October there was a year-on-year increase of 20% to 30%. The Czech mortgage market should reach a record result of around CZK230bn (€8.6bn) in 2020.
Hungarian oil giant MOL’s earnings rebounded in Q3 despite the pandemic with an Ebitda of HUF184bn (€512mn) in Q3, down by 12% y/y, but up from HUF114bn in the Q2 and well above analysts' forecasts.
Southeast Europe
52% of Slovenian citizens aged 16-74 years made purchases online in the first quarter of 2020, according to
the statistics office. The largest share of e-buyers was among the 25-34 age bracket (75%) and the smallest among 65-74-year-olds (16%).
Romanian state-owned gas producer Romgaz and OMV Petrom, the biggest local energy company, could partner to develop a hydrogen production facility near a wind farm in Dobrogea. Romania has no offshore wind farms, but a bill aimed at providing facilities for investors in this segment is being debated by lawmakers.
OMV Petrom, the biggest energy company in Romania, plans to build
a bioethanol plant and will apply for EU funds to finance the project. The com- pany reportedly submitted a project worth RON1.2bn (€245mn) to the Economy and Energy Ministry to get 35% of the invest- ment subsidised under the Modernisation Fund which is eligible for EU funding.
Migros, one of Turkey’s largest supermarket chains, reported
a 95% y/y decline in its net income to TRY9mn (€0.9mn) in the third quarter. Revenues rose 19% y/y to TRY7.7bn in the quarter despite underperforming seasonal stores in the country’s southern provinces that are home to major holiday destinations for international tourists.
Eurasia
The world’s largest uranium producer, Kazatomprom, has resumed activities at all of its mining operations in Kazakhstan, progressing according to its plans after a four-month coronavirus shutdown. The company announced
in early April that its facilities in Kazakhstan would gradually phase to overall reduced capacity, leading to production cuts by about 17.5% in 2020.
Watermelon exports from Uzbekistan in the nine months to September soared by 8.5 times y/y, according to the state statistics committee. In the period, the country exported 48,900 tonnes of watermelons worth $11.7mn to 13 countries. Kazakhstan became the main importer of Uzbek watermelons having purchased 32,600 tonnes. Russia placed second with 12,000 tonnes, and Kyrgyzstan third with 3,600 tonnes.
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