Romania Feed

Romania’s unemployment rate stood at 5.6% in December 2022, higher by 0.2 percentage points than 5.4% in November 2022, data from the country’s statistics institute INS shows on Wednesday (Feb 1).

eMAG, the biggest online retailer in Romania, has got long-term funding worth almost EUR70 million from Alpha Bank, which will support the construction of a state-of-the-art logistic center near Budapest, Hungary, with a capacity of as much as 120,000 square meters, an over EUR100 million investment.

More than 6,700 companies entered insolvency in 2022, up 10% from 2021, but just 67 of them are major companies with assets of above EUR1 million, flat from the previous year, reveals a survey by insolvency specialist CITR.

Swedish furniture and home décor retailer IKEA has started the recruiting process for the more than 250 employees of the future store of Timisoara, which the company is set to open this summer.

Electroaparataj Targoviste, a marker of electrical equipment and electrotechnical accessories, has announced that during the February 1-28 period it will substantially reduce its activity and suspend labor contracts for most employees.

TeraPlast group in 2022 posted RON711 million turnover, up 16%, while its net profit slumped by 64% to RON15.4 million.

Vlad Mihail and Darius Lumperdean in 2019 opened Bear King restaurant specializing in wurstgers in Targu-Mures, in the wake of EUR85,000 investments and this year went abroad, opening a unit in London.

In 2023, Metro Romania development will be based on three pillars: the expansion of LaDoiPasi franchise (with the network set to go beyond 2,000 stores this year), service digitalization and attracting new business, both from the hospitality sector and from resellers.

eMAG, the largest online retailer in Romania, plans to raise the credit limit for its registered customers and increase the number of installments in which they can repay their loans, a move prepared in partnership with payment processor PayU, part of the same group.

Romania’s Competition Council is looking into a transaction whereby Cemacon SA, part of Paval Holding Group, seeks to acquire the company Euro Caramida SA.

Egger Romania, part of Austria’s Egger, a supplier of wood-based material for furniture industry and interior decorations, construction and flooring, ended 2022 with investments of EUR13.5 million which were geared mostly towards increasing the capacity of collecting and processing recyclable wood waste and towards a new impregnated paper production line.

Romanian consumers made purchases worth EUR457 million in supermarkets and other grocery stores through Revolut cards in 2022, according to a survey by Revolut.

Courier services company Cargus, one of the largest players on Romania’s market, has recruited Oana Mandicescu and Zoe Dobre for the positions of Chief Sales Officer (CSO) and Chief People and Culture Officer (CPCO), respectively.

The Sovereign Wealth Fund of Norway owned stake in eight companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange as of December 31, 2022, as well as in the real estate developer Globalworth, which has a strong presence in Romania, according to the fund's latest data.

Egis, the French engineering multinational Group, signed a lease agreement for 1,100 square meters of office space within the America House office building in Bucharest, held by U.S. investor Morgan Stanley.

Law firm Wolf Theiss advised property developer SPEEDWELL on its first industrial project, located in the north-west of Bucharest.

The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity across Emerging Europe increased by 5.6% by volume to 1,229 deals compared to 2021, while the total value of deals fell by 20% year-over-year to EUR32.93 billion, as per the findings of the latest CMS Emerging Europe M&A report published in cooperation with EMIS.

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a EUR1.6 billion Romanian measure to set up the Romanian Investment and Development Bank.

Romania and five other European Union (EU) Member States call for compensation for damages due to the cheap wheat from Ukraine, left on European territory, affecting their own sales.

Romania places seventh among the top ten most cyber secure countries in the world, with a score of 89.61 out of 100, in a National Cyber Security Index, according to a recent study.