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bne February 2021 Companies & Markets I 7
countryside. Hotels at the popular holiday hot spot around Lake Balaton operated at full capacity in August with some raising prices by as much as 40% due to strong demand.
Hotels were forced to close their doors except for business tourists after the government reintroduced restrictions in mid-November. Most of the hotels in the capital have closed temporarily to save costs and laid off staff. They are now trying to survive through the government's furlough measures, which had been extended until January.
The overwhelming sentiment is that owners are not in a hurry to exit the market, Privatbankar writes.
Analysts say that there are at least two dozen projects in the pipeline in central Budapest. Projects that are still in the designing phase, however, will be unlikely to proceed with the lack of financing.
A recent report by the National Bank (MNB) estimated that the development of some 7,000 rooms, roughly 13% of the present capacity on the market to be completed in three years
Poland picks location for its Izera e-car plant, says production delayed until 2024
bne IntelliNews
The production of Poland’s first domestically-manufactured electric vehicle, Izera, will be located in the southern town of Jaworzno in the industrial and mining region of Upper Silesia, ElectroMobility Poland (EMP) – the state-owned company responsible for the project – said on December 15.
The start of manufacturing will be thus delayed by a year compared to a plan announced in late July.
Poland had ambitious plans for quickly growing the number of e-vehicles on its roads to one million by 2025, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki pledged in 2016.
While that is unattainable now, domestic production of what EMP claims will be a “reasonably-priced vehicle for an average Pole” could boost the number of e-car users in the late 2020s.
The production of the vehicle will create approximately 3,000 jobs in the Jaworzno plant as well as some 12,000 in suppliers and related companies, EMP said in a statement on its website.
could come under review. Some 4,200 of the rooms are to be constructed in Budapest.
Developments in the hotel segment have come to a standstill as global tourism collapsed. Some 580 rooms were handed over in H1, according to a report by property consultancy CBRE. Projects under due diligence reached €165mn, the majority of these will slip into 2021.
The largest transactions on the market in the last 12 months were linked to US-Hungarian investment management and property developer Indotek Group, owned by Hungarian billionaire Daniel Jellinek.
The company bought five-star luxury hotel Sofitel for an estimated €100mn this year after taking ownership of one of the most prestigious hotels in Budapest paying an estimated €80mn for Gellert, also known for its world-famous thermal bath.
Indoket is said to carry out a complete renovation of the exterior and interior of the two facilities. In the case of Gellert the costs could easily exceed the transaction price, analysts said.
The cost of launching production is expected at PLN4bn-5bn, the company said in July.
The Polish e-car, which is named after a mountain range in southern Poland, will be manufactured in SUV and hatchback versions. EMP says that the Jaworzno plant will be capable of releasing 200,000 cars a year. Polish companies will initially supply 30% of the car's components. That is expected to go up to 80% over time.
The company is yet to offer full details on the technical specs of the car. EMP has only said so far that the vehicle’s nominal range is expected at 400 kilometres on a single charge. The car will be able to go from zero to 100 km/h in about eight seconds, EMP also said.
Izera cars will not be available in a traditional sales model but via a rental system with monthly payments, also covering the cost of electricity. EMP's shareholders are Poland's four state- run utilities: PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Energa.
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