Romania Feed

Apartment prices went up in five districts in Bucharest in June compared with the previous month, and down in only two districts, as the market headed towards an 11-year peak.

The construction paint market stagnated in 2020, says paint manufacturer Policolor. The pandemic year was an opportunity for companies in this business to make investments in production facilities.

Ian Pearson, the former Ford Romania president between March 2018 and April 2021 who also ran the Craiova plant of the carmaker, has become operations director of BritishVolt, the UK company that will build the first electric car battery plant in that country, GigaFactory.

The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), which operates the local capital market, on Friday said it concluded, as issuer, a contract for market making services with BRK Financial Group (BRK.RO), the only brokerage company listed on the Romanian Stock Exchange, which will produce its effects starting with July 5, 2021.

The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources will entail huge investments in production capacities and infrastructure, with the amounts estimated for Europe alone to transform the electricity network exceeding $2 trillion until 2050, according to PwC.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Friday said it was providing a loan worth the Romanian lei equivalent of up to EUR40 million (USD47.3 million) to Distributie Energie Electrica Romania (DEER), the electricity distribution subsidiary of Electrica Group.

The Executive Board of Romania’s largest natural gas producer Romgaz Medias (SNG.RO) decided in its meeting of June 30, 2021 to appoint Aristotel Marius Jude to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for a new provisional mandate of four months, starting with August 14, 2021.

Real estate market professionals in Central Europe are optimistic that the year will deliver a post-pandemic market bounce, according to the Deloitte Real Estate Confidence Survey for Central Europe 2021 conducted in the first quarter in Romania, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary.

The real estate market professionals in Central Europe returned to the level of optimism registered before the pandemic. Almost 40% of them expect an improvement in the general economic climate this year, 46% have positive expectations regarding real estate activity, and 48% rely on increasing the volume of transactions, according to the Deloitte Real Estate Confidence Survey for Central Europe 2021, conducted in the first quarter of this year in four countries in the region – Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. At the same time, 58% of the respondents expect the availability of investment products to increase in countries where they operate.

Monika Rajska-Wolińska, Managing Partner of Colliers’ business in Poland, has been promoted to CEO of Colliers in the enlarged Central and Eastern European region starting August 1, the real estate consultancy company announced.

US giant Oracle has acquired Romanian online food ordering start-up Gloria Food, funded in 2013 by German entrepreneur Oliver Auerbach and Romanian entrepreneur Mihai Anghel.

Lender Raiffeisen Bank's second green bond issue, worth over RON1.2 billion, starts trading Friday on the Bucharest stock exchange under the ticker symbol RBRO28.

More than 14,000 new vehicles were registered in Romania in June, an increase of 18% on year-ago period, Romania’s General Directorate for Driving Licenses and Car Registration (DRPCIV) data show.

Swiss-held Novartis, one of the largest international pharmaceutical groups, which also has a plant in Romania, Sandoz Targu-Mures, has chosen this country to boost production capacity and create a testing center for drugs that will then be sold throughout Europe.

Mortar, paint and base coat manufacturer Baumit, held by Austria’s Schmid Industrie Holding, saw its revenue increase 12% to RON335 million in 2020, Finance Ministry data show. The profit stood at RON21.4 million, 35% higher than in the previous year, and the number of employees rose to 264.

Shareholders of chemical producer Chimcomplex Borzesti (CHOB.RO), which owns the Oltchim and Borzesti platforms, on Thursday approved the admission of shares to trading on the main regulated market managed by the Bucharest Stock Exchange, at the standard tier, through transfer from the alternative trading system AeRO, per a stock market report.

BCR Social Finance and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have agreed to provide financing of RON75 million to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and people engrossed in education and development of professional competencies, per information from Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR).

Retailer Profi, held by buyout investor Mid Europa Partners, has opened 80 new stores since the beginning of 2021, reaching 1,476 units across Romania.

In May 2021, the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate stood at 7.9%, up from 7.5% in May 2020. At the same time, the EU unemployment rate was 7.3% in May 2021, up from 6.9% in May 2020, according to data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Romania's finance ministry on Thursday raised RON2.2 billion (EUR0.44 billion) selling bonds maturing in August 2021 and November 2024, at average yields of 1.42% and 2.49%, respectively.