Romania Feed

Electrica (EL.RO), key player on the Romanian electricity distribution and supply market, as well as one of the most important players in the energy services sector, will benefit as of September 30, 2020, from the issuer’s market-making services provided by Wood & Company Financial Services (Czech Republic), leading investment bank in Emerging Europe.

Local company Safetech Innovations, specialized in providing cyber security solutions, plans to trade its shares on the alternative trading system AeRO of the Bucharest stock exchange until the end of 2020.

Romania's three-month ROBOR index, the interbank interest rate used as a reference to calculate variable interests for loans in lei, grew to 2.11% a year on Wednesday (September 30), which is the seventh consecutive day of growth.

Idea Bank, held by Poland’s Getin Holding Group, reported operating revenue of RON55.8 million in January-June 2020, up 11.7% on the year, and a net profit of RON5.6 million, almost double from RON3 million in the same period in 2019, per its financial report released Wednesday.

Holde Agri Invest, a Romanian company operating farmland, starts trading Thursday, October 1, on the the AeRO market of the Bucharest stock exchange under the ticker symbol HAI.

Shares of Romania's Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) generated a return of 283% since stock market listing in January 2011 to end-August 2020, and its total distribution yield has been constantly around 10% in the past 10 years.

Romania’s building materials market has increased on average 9% per year over the past years, reaching EUR4 billion in 2019, with market players significantly focusing on certain segments, per an analysis by strategic consultancy firm Roland Berger, conducted in March-August 2020.

Romania’s Competition Council is looking into a transaction whereby regional investment fund SIF Banat-Crişana SA (SIF1.RO) plans to acquire the company Doosan IMGB SA.

Winemaker Cramele Recas, one of the largest actors on the Romanian wine market and the largest wine exporter in the country, expects a turnover of RON215 million (over EUR44 million) in 2020, up 8% on the year, per company data.

Electronics retailer Altex has announced the opening of a new store, in Botosani, starting October 1, following an investment of over EUR500,000.

Swedish lender Hoist Finance AB has decided to enter the Romanian market and to operate as a branch, saying its activity starts in September 2020, according to Ziarul Financiar.

Romania's general consolidated budget posted a deficit of RON54.77 billion in January-August 2020, or 5.18% of the gross domestic product, more than half of which was due to financial measures taken by the government to fight the Covid-19 outbreak, finance ministry data showed Tuesday.

Deloitte Romania and Reff & Associates, the law firm representing Deloitte Legal global network in Romania, provided assistance to Haier Tech, a Romanian company belonging to the Haier Group, in the project for building in Prahova county the first Haier’s refrigeration factory in the European Union. After assisting Haier Tech in obtaining the financing agreement for state aid in December 2019, Deloitte’s Management Consulting practice is now advising Haier Tech in the implementation of the large investment project that exceeds EUR 53 million, for which the state will provide aid of EUR 25 million.

Organizations around the world spend less than 5% of their revenues on technology, even so-called tech vanguards - companies with a well-defined vision and strategy and a mature tech function -, according to the 2020 Deloitte Global Technology Leadership Study, conducted on 1,300 technology and business leaders across 69 countries, including Romania. The study also reveals that only 11% of organizations are tech vanguards and that almost a third of leaders in such companies (29%) are likely to play a visionary role, twice more than leaders in baseline organizations (14%).

Central Europe’s private equity (PE) firms’ confidence hits lowest level since the global financial crisis, as a result of the COVID-19 impact, but deal-doers are more optimistic than during the 2008 crisis, according to the latest Deloitte CE Private Equity Confidence Survey. The confidence index, which has been decreasing since the end of 2017, is now at 62, the second historical lowest after October 2008, when it reached 48. Seven in ten professionals in Central Europe private equity houses forecast a decline in market activity and worsening economic conditions, given that the regional economies, which are largely consumer-driven, are expecting significant GDP contraction in 2020 amid demand shrink caused by unemployment rise.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, companies redirected almost half of the marketing budgets (46%) towards social media and mobile activities, according to the latest edition of Deloitte Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Survey, twice as much as before the pandemic. The study also emphasizes that marketers anticipate a continuous growth for mobile spending over the next 12 months, while spending on social media will remain close to the new high level. Deloitte CMO Survey was the result of an analysis of almost 300 responses from top marketers active in 13 industry sectors in US.

Deloitte Romania launches SmarTax application, a digital tool that allows companies to calculate and prepare the quarterly and annual corporate income tax (CIT) computation based on accounting documents available on any fixed or mobile device connected to the internet, thus digitizing their compliance process with corporate income tax reporting requirements. The application incorporates the entire fiscal legislation in force, while also remaining flexible to adjust to any future changes in the corporate tax area.

Revolut is the fastest growing technology company in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to the latest Deloitte EMEA Technology Fast 500 competition. The ranking also includes the Romanian companies Tremend, Piconet, Trencadis and Qualitance, active in fields such as software and fintech, all of them previously recognized by Deloitte’s competition dedicated to technology players with the fastest revenue growth in Central Europe, Technology Fast 50.

Central Europe chief financial officers have reached a pessimism peak as their confidence about the economic outlook and the wider business environment continues to fall amid the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Deloitte CE CFO Survey, conducted on more than 300 leading finance professionals in six countries - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. Almost three quarters of the respondents (72%) stated they were less optimistic about their companies’ financial prospects than before the new coronavirus outbreak, with Polish leading the top of the pessimistic (79%), followed by Romanians (75%). The study also shows significant shifts in the perceived levels of uncertainty facing respondents’ businesses, considering that an average of 36% respondents felt a high level of external financial and economic uncertainty in the pre- outbreak edition of the survey, compared to almost 70%, in the latest edition.

Deloitte Romania advised TeraPlast Group, the largest Romanian producer of construction materials, in the sale of its steel division to the Irish group Kingspan, global leader in insulation and building envelope solutions, which was already present on the Romanian market. The transaction refers to the entire participation held by TeraPlast in the thermo-insulating panel factories TeraSteel in Romania and in Serbia, as well as in the metal tile producer Wetterbest. The agreement is subject to approval from the competition bodies. The value of the sold division has been assessed at 410 million lei, and the final price will be established after adjustments with the net debt and the working capital.