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The Regions This Week
July 21, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Central Europe
The share price of Prague Stock Exchange-listed Pegas Nonwovens moved up to a record high on July 18 after Czech investment group R2G put forward an offer to buy the artificial textile mak- er. Czech family fund R2G, which presently holds 8% of Pegas as the second largest shareholder, is offering CZK1,010 per share, an 8% premium over the end-of-week close on July 14, which values the firm at CZK9.3bn ($411.23mn).
A scandal has erupted over the the Kyrgyz gov- ernment’s award of a tender to Czech firm Li- glass Trading to construct and operate two units of the stalled Upper Naryn cascade hydropower project. It is alleged that Liglass – which was en- dorsed by a top adviser to Czech President Milos Zeman – has never completed such a project, and is struggling financially.
The Czech current account showed a CZK2.9bn deficit in May following April's CZK14.3bn surplus and compared to a CZK1.6bn surplus recorded for the month a year ago, according to data released by the Czech National Bank.
This year's Czech central state budget may fin- ish up with a narrower deficit than the targeted CZK60bn ($2.6bn), Finance Minister Ivan Pilny said."So far, I'm slightly optimistic. I think the deficit will be smaller. It will depend on drawing European [Union] money – things looked the same with last year's surplus," Pilny said.
UK-listed Ortac Resources said it has recom- menced gold mining operations in Slovakia
after the re-issuing of a small-scale underground mining permit. It said it also remained in active discussions with its potential local JV partner to develop the Sturec Gold Project, near Kremnica in central Slovakia.
Slovak inflation eased back to 1.0% y/y from 1.1% y/y in May, Slovak Statistics reported. On a monthly basis, prices were unchanged following the 0.2% m/m rise in the previous month.
Slovakia's unemployment rate declined to an all-time low of 6.9% in June, labour office data showed. That compares to 7.4% in May and 9.5% in June 2016.
Polish retail sales grew 5.8% y/y at constant prices in June, statistics office GUS announced. The reading marks a slowdown in the pace of growth of retail sales over the 7.4% annual expan- sion seen in May. In monthly terms, retail sales expanded 1.6 in constant prices and 0.9% in cur- rent prices.
Polish industrial production grew 4.5% y/y in constant prices in June, data from statistical of- fice GUS showed. In seasonally adjusted terms, output grew 6.7% y/y, while there were clearer hints of improving growth in investment as well.
Polish debt collecting company GetBack saw the price of its stock grow 2% to PLN18.88 (€4.49) per share as it debuted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange on July 17.The company set the price of its initial public offering (IPO) at PLN18.5 earlier this month. With 40mn shares on offer, the com- pany’s offering was worth PLN740mn at the set price, which was markedly lower than the PLN27 per share maximum price suggested earlier
by GetBack.
Budapest-headquartered budget airline Wizz Air announced that its Q1 net profit rose 50.4% y/y to a record €58.1mn on revenues of €469.3mn,
up 29%. The airline, which specialises in flights within Central and Eastern Europe, carried 7.2mn passengers, up 25% y/y as it added 10 new routes. The load factor, a key indicator in the airline in- dustry, rose 17bps to 91.2%.
Hungary has hired Bank of China and HSBC to conduct a sale of yuan-denominated bonds on China's interbank bond market, Hungary’s Gov- ernment Debt Management Agency AKK an- nounced.