Page 23 - bne Magazine February 2023

bne February 2023 Companies & Markets I 23
The sectoral structure of mutual investments in the EEU
and CIS varies. While the extraction of oil and natural gas accounts for 24% of the FDI stock in the CIS, it only ranks fourth in the EAEU, where the top investment-recipient sector is mining of metal ore (19.5% of EAEU mutual FDI).
Financial services also play a significant role, accounting for 12.4% of mutual FDI by EAEU countries. In the first half of 2022, Russia’s state-owned banking giant Sberbank was the leader in terms of mutual FDI stock in the banking sector, followed by its sister banks VTB, Gazprombank and the privately owned Alfa Bank.
Iran and China FDI
There is potential for growth in mutual investments between the CIS countries and China, Iran, and the most developed Arab states. China's FDI stock in the twelve post-Soviet countries exceeded $67.5bn as of mid-2022, including $12.5bn invested in Russia, although enthusiasm for inbound Chinese FDI has cooled more recently.
Mercedes plans to build €1.3bn e-van factory in Poland
Wojciech Kosc in Warsaw
Mercedes-Benz Group announced plans on December 12 to build an electric van factory in southern Poland in an investment worth €1.3bn.
The plant will employ an estimated 2,500 people, Mercedes representatives said, speaking at a press conference alongside Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The factory will be Mercedes’ first to build only electric vans in what the head of the company’s vans division Mathias Geisen called a “step towards emissions-free mobility”.
The investment proves that Poland no longer needs to compete with other countries on labour costs alone, PM Morawiecki said.
“We now want high-quality work,” Morawiecki said, adding that the quality of the Mercedes brand will meet the "quality of Polish engineers, project managers, and employees”.
The factory will be located in Jawor, southwestern Poland, where Mercedes already operates facilities producing petrol and diesel engines as well as batteries for electric vehicles.
Chinese investors have become more active in Russia, with China's FDI stock in the country growing by 27.4% from 2016 to 2022. Meanwhile, Iran's total FDI in CIS countries reached $1.8bn, with Azerbaijan being the main recipient. CIS investments in Iran have been small so far. The Arab countries receive more FDI from CIS countries, mainly Russia, than they invest in the region's countries.
Evgeny Vinokurov, EDB chief economist, notes three key
trends in EAEU countries’ mutual investments: “Firstly, a long-term trend is increased FDI in the greenfield projects. These have grown by a factor of 1.6 over the past six years, to 32%. Secondly, FDI by 100% private investors has increased
by almost 1.3 times over the same period. These projects accounted for 56% of EAEU countries’ mutual investments as at mid-2022. We believe that the share of private companies in mutual FDI could grow further, given cuts in public companies’ transboundary investments. Thirdly, transboundary green investments have great potential, but their absolute amount is still insignificant.”
Mercedes' eSprinter van. / Mercedes
The factory is expected to start production in 2025.
Poland has long been an attractive location for car manufacturers, though it has tended to lag behind its neighbours in the region. Only in recent years have brands like Volkswagen or Stellantis (the new name of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot, which merged in 2020) begun production in Poland.
Poland also has ambitions to make its own electric cars.
In November, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, China’s leading privately-owned automotive technology group, signed an agreement to become a technology partner of ElectroMobility Poland (EMP), an electric vehicle manufacturer backed by the Polish government.
EMP plans to develop multiple electric models for its Izera e-car using the Chinese company’s modular platform.
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