Page 8 - BNE_magazine_05_2020

8 I The Month That Was bne May 2020 Business
Eastern Europe
The Belarusian government has sold the small Minsk-headquartered state- owned lender Paritetbank to Beristore Holdings Limited, controlled by Said Gutseriev, the son of Russian oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev, a close associate
of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
An exceptional dry spring and the coronavirus pandemic are both likely to reduce the size of Ukraine’s grain harvest this year, says the Agricultural Ministry, which is forecasting 60mn tonnes for the year, down from last year’s bumper 75mn tonne harvest.
Investment in Ukrainian IT companies and startups was at a record $510mn in 2019, 50% up from the previous high of 2018, according to a review by the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA). The number of deals in 2019 was almost the same
as in 2018: 111 deals compared with 115 in 2018, but the volume of M&A transactions increased by 18 times.
Ukraine's state-run oil and gas company Naftogaz has attracted
an international company, Expert Petroleum, to increase hydrocarbon production from the fields of Ukrgasvydobuvannya in Western Ukraine in the first ever full-scale production enhancement contract (PEC).
Total Russian aviation market passenger traffic could fall from 120mn passengers annually to 60mn after the strict lockdown measures are lifted, the owner of S7 air carrier Vladislav Filev told Kommersant daily in an interview. Privately owned S7 has for the first
time ever carried more passengers than Aeroflot on domestic routes in April.
Russia’s online food sales are soaring.
Russian leading food retailer X5 Group Pererkrestok.ru posted turnover of over RUB2bn ($27.1mn) in 1Q20, up by 135% year on year and contributing
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almost half of the online top line of the company for 2019 (RUB4.3bn) and beating all of 2018 (RUB1.3bn).
Central Europe
Poland’s gas grid operator, the state- owned Gaz-System, has obtained permission to build the underwater part of the Polish section of the Baltic Pipe, an infrastructure project that is crucial for Poland’s ambitions to wean itself off Russian gas by 2022.
Slovenia saw the steepest fall in
new vehicle registrations in March among Central and Southeast European EU members. New passenger car registrations in Slovenia plunged by 62.4% year on year to 2,743 in March as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Polish Aviation Group (PGL), the state owner of the Polish flag carrier Lot, pulled out from a deal to buy
the German airline Condor. PGL had announced the deal in late January but the outbreak of coronavirus scuppered the deal. Poland’s state-owned airline Lot will probably need state aid in order to pull through the enforced grounding of its fleet as well.
The Chinese state concern CITIC through its company Rainbow Wisdom Investment has exercised an option and acquired a majority share (57%) in the Czech media group Medea, online Hlidaci Pes reported on April 17. CITIC now owns a greater stake than its second owner and Czech media magnate, Jaromir Soukup.
Hungary's leading carmaker Audi announced the restart of production at its plant in Gyor after four-week shutdown. Sector peers Daimler and Suzuki are also working to relaunch production. On April 14, the first working day after the Easter holiday, other major industrial companies announced plans to end the shutdowns at their Hungarian bases.
Investments in Hungary's commercial property market reached a record €1.8bn last year, according to Hungarian National Bank (MNB). The office market attracted the biggest investment, 45%
of the total.
Southeast Europe
Czech utilities group CEZ will have to put the sale of its Romanian assets on hold during the state of emergency, at least until May 16, after Romania’s government banned any transfer of majority stakes in utilities companies.
Bucharest-listed Purcari Wineries, one of the largest wine producers in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), said demand for wine has been holding up well but also cautions that the outlook remains volatile. Sales rose by 9% in Q1 despite a nearly 50% plunge in exports to China in the same period.
Air passenger traffic in Albania plunged by 64.1% year on year
to 76,106 people in March, as a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak. The figure is expected to slump further in the next few months.
Eurasia
Kazakhstan’s aviation industry has experienced losses of KZT235bn (€505.5mn) due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Kazakh government has suspended 438 international flights per week to 97 destinations, or 99% of all the country’s international flights.
Uzbekistan on April 24 permitted the reopening of certain categories of retailers and other businesses that were closed for weeks. The country has confirmed 1,804 coronavirus
cases, including eight deaths and 621 recoveries.