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NIBs
August/September 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
year, according to an annual ranking by market research firm GKI Digital released on August 16.
Online sales in Hungary have grown robustly
in the last few years, at rates multiple those of retail sales. While retail commerce as a whole expanded by 6% last year, the online market saw growth of 18%, meaning that online sales now account for 4.3% of total retail commerce in Hungary.
The top 10 online retail companies reported combined sales of HUF135bn (€416.8mn) last year, up 26% y/y and 37% of the total.
Extreme Digital was founded in 2001 by two Hungarian businessmen. Over the years it has grown to become the country's leading online retailer. At present, it has 16 stores in Hungary and is present in eight countries.
The company pursues a balance between online and offline. Brick and mortar stores accounted for 50% of the revenues, which reached HUF35bn in 2017.
Czech PPF Group reportedly eyes Balkan TV stations
Czech investment group PPF Group is interested in expanding its media portfolio with the addition of United Group, a major cable and pay-TV operator in the Balkans, Balkan Insight said on August 13.
PPF has been seeking to buy up assets in Southeast Europe recently acquiring several Telenor subsidiaries in the region, and attempting to buy Nova Broadcasting Group in Bulgaria.
United Group is owned by US investment vehicle KKR. It is the biggest cable company in Serbia
and also operates in Bosnia, Montenegro and Slovenia. United Group has TV channels SBB, Telemach, Total TV, Sport Klub and regional N1 TV. Both PPF and United Group dismissed Balkan Insight’s report as rumour. PPF is controlled
by Central Europe’s richest man, Czech businessman Petr Kellner.
Czech PPF appeals ban to buy Bulgaria’s Nova TV
PPF Group, a holding controlled by Central Eu- rope’s richest man, Petr Kellner, has appealed at the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) a ban to acquire Nova Broadcasting Group, which includes Nova TV and is controlled by Swedish Modern Times Group (MTG), daily Dnevnik reported.
In July, the deal was banned by Bulgaria’s compe- tition watchdog CPC, which expressed concerns about the effect of the transaction on the competi- tive environment of the market as well as about the horizontal overlap of participants' activities in the concentration of the online trading market.
Meanwhile, local media reported that Kellner will visit Bulgaria to meet Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. However, there has not yet been any confirmation of the visit.
MTG confirmed on February 19 that it had signed a deal with Kellner on the sale of a 95% stake in its Bulgarian company Nova Broadcasting Group for €185mn.
The Swedish company had been trying to sell
its Bulgarian business for more than a year for some €100mn, but until previously failed to find an appropriate buyer. It entered the Bulgarian market in 2007, acquiring the Diema TV channels. A year later, it bought Nova TV for €620mn.
Armenia hikes tablet production
Production of tablets in Armenia increased by 6.6 times y/y in the first half of 2018, according to Na- tional Statistical Service data quoted by local media.
The numbers remain small, however, with 364 tablets produced in January-June, up from 55 in the first half of 2017.