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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.

New housing has become more expensive in most European countries over the last years, including 2019. Among 23 countries participating in Deloitte Property Index Study, 20 showed growth in prices of new dwellings and only three of them saw a price decrease. Experts in the residential real estate market expected the growth trend to continue in 2020, but they became less optimistic in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, in almost half of participating countries, the residential market is expected to stagnate this year in terms of price and experts in only six countries have positive expectations.

More than half of the European consumers (52%) plan to postpone buying a new vehicle and they will keep their current one longer than originally intended in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Deloitte State of Consumer Tracker, with respondents from Poland being the most cautious regarding the purchasing behavior (68%), followed by the Irish (61%) and the Spanish (60%). At the opposite end, only 32% of the Dutch have postponed their plans to buy a new vehicle. The survey was conducted on 18,000 respondents from 18 countries, including nine European states – Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom -, in the second half of June 2020.

Deloitte Romania strengthens its management team by promoting Ioana Boca to Financial Advisory Director, Sorin Elisei to Director within the specialized practice in the energy and natural resources industry, and Mihnea Galgotiu-Sararu to Partner within Reff & Associates, the law firm member of Deloitte Legal global network.

Deloitte Romania has appointed Radu Dumitrescu Partner-in-Charge of the Financial Advisory practice, effective as of June 2020. In his new role, Radu Dumitrescu will coordinate the transaction support and reorganization services teams, the corporate finance advisory experts, the forensic professionals, as well as the valuation, economics and modelling team.

Deloitte Romania opens application for the 21st edition of Technology Fast 50 Central Europe competition, addressed to large and small local companies in the technology sector, public and private, which register accelerated growth. Held simultaneously in other 17 Central European countries, namely Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, the competition provides both established and emerging technology companies the platform to highlight their leading position in their field of activity.

The reopening of commercial spaces and the return to the office after the relaxation of the restrictions imposed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic involves a considerable administrative effort for companies, in order to meet the criteria and implement the measures that will offer the green light to resume business. Each company needs to prepare its own set of measures and implement them rigorously, in order to avoid undesirable consequences and risks, based on a plan adapted to its own specificity, so as to reach the “fit-for purpose“ standard, depending on the characteristics of the space and the nature of the activity carried out in the location.

Deloitte Romania has appointed Vlad Boeriu Partner-in-Charge of the Tax and Legal practice, effective as of June 2020, following Dan Badin’s completion of the mandate in this role. Vlad Boeriu joined Deloitte in 2004 as a Tax Consultant and has gone through all the ranks up to Partner-in-Charge. Since 2015, he has been a Tax Partner, a role in which he led the growth of Deloitte Romania’s indirect tax practice.

The perception of the CFOs in Romania regarding the evolution of the main financial indicators of their companies has changed dramatically in only several months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CFO Survey Romania, conducted by Deloitte in April-May 2020 based on opinions expressed by CFOs in our country. Their main concern for this year is the drop in demand, as 73% of the survey participants estimate a decrease of the internal demand, and 45% of them, of the external demand. The share of those who expect revenues reduction is 67%, while at the end of 2019, 78% of them estimated increases in revenues, according to the survey.

Deloitte Romania strengthens its management team by promoting Raluca Baldea and Bogdan Barbu to Tax Partners and Simina Mut to Partner with Reff & Associates, the law firm representing Deloitte Legal global network in Romania.