Page 8 - bne_newspaper_July-07_2017

The Regions This Week
July 7, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Central Europe
Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) postponed Polish unit Raiffeisen Bank Polska's IPO citing “insufficient interest”. Speculation that the IPO would flop has been rife almost since the day RBI announced the offering, pushed to do so by Polish financial market regulator KNF despite the unfavourable market environment.
Budapest signed a deal with Russia's Gazprom to
link Hungary with the under-construction Turk- ish Stream pipeline by end-2019. The deal could mean deliveries of up to 8bn cubic metres a year of gas, a figure close to Hungarian consumption. Around one-half of the gas consumed in Hungary is currently delivered from Russia via pipelines running via Ukraine.
The value of new lending by Polish banks grew 4.5% y/y to nearly PLN20.5bn (€4.8bn) in May, following April's 4.1% y/y fall. The expansion came on the back of new lending in the consumer and housing segments.
Poland’s progressive retail tax scheme breaches the EU's state aid rules, the European Commis- sion said. The EU executive said the scheme's progressive structure gives smaller players an un- fair market edge. Poland introduced the tax as the populist government sought revenue to balance a budget strained by large expenditure projects.
Poland’s Play Communications hopes to raise up to PLN5.2bn (€1.2bn) from an IPO on the War- saw Stock Exchange later in July. Play, owner of the second biggest Polish mobile operator P4, is offering up to 48.6% in the company.
Poland and the US signed a memorandum that may pave the way for Poland to buy Patriot surface-to-air missile interception systems from US company Raytheon. The “memorandum of intent” says the US will deliver a buy offer to Warsaw by December. If a contract is agreed, Pa- triot batteries are to achieve “initial operational capability” in 2023.
An investment fund managed by Sweden's East Capital bought a logistics park in the Estonian capital Tallinn for €54mn from VGP, an operator of logistics and industrial parks. Nehatu logistics park offers 77,000 sq m for logistics, industrial, and commercial activity.
The Czech state budget recorded a surplus of 0.18% of GDP in Q1 2017, while the debt burden stood at 39.9%. Government revenue increased 6% y/y in the quarter, income tax collection gained 13.7%, social contributions 5.4% and excise levies brought in 5.3% more. Expenditures increased 3.5%, with wages the biggest drain on the budget.
The Czech Republic’s trade surplus was CZK14.3bn (€547mn) in May, preliminary data showed, a marked improvement over April’s CZK10bn surplus, which was driven by the short month. The improvement in May came on the back of robust export demand, especially in the auto segment.
Hungary is launching a HUF300MN (€970mn) tourism development programme to run to 2030. The sector accounts for a tenth of GDP and employs 12% of the workforce.
Hungary's total contract value of new forint- denominated housing loans rose to the highest level since November 2008 in May. Banks laid out HUF59.2bn in new mortgage loans and HUF30.2bn in personal loans, marking 39% and 73% annual rises respectively.
The Hungarian central bank ordered CIB
and Raiffeisen to build systemic risk buffers equal to 2% and 1.5% respectively of their domestic risk-weighted assets. It introduced a Systemic Risk Buffer scheme in 2014 to manage problematic loans risk — mostly in commercial real estate — in the aftermath of the financial crisis.