Romania Feed

The use of offices is about 40-50% of the usual level before the outbreak of the pandemic, while the the vacancy (contractual) rate of office spaces is 10.8%, with a significant difference between class A (8.2%) and class B (18.2%) offices, a report by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox showed Monday.

Real estate consulting firm CBRE has been selected by developer Skanska to provide property management services for the Campus 6.2 and Campus 6.3 office buildings located in the central-western part of capital Bucharest.

Dental clinic chain Dr. Leahu, the second largest player on the local dental services market, announced Monday it was opening its first clinic abroad, in London, a GBP400,000 investment.

Romania's trade balance posted a deficit of EUR13.058 billion in January-September 2020, EUR998.5 million higher (+8.3%) compared with the same period in 2019, data from the country's statistics board showed Monday.

Greek OTE Group, held by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, confirmed Monday morning the sale of its fixed operations in Romania to Orange Romania, leader on the local telecom market, within a transaction worth EUR500 million, thus confirming the information released last week by Ziarul Financiar.

Sales of local supermarkets, i.e. of those part of chains held by local entrepreneurs, rose 17% in May-October, which is the fastest rate of all analyzed by market research company RetailZoom.

Tinmar Energy, a company of Romanian entrepreneur Augustin Oancea, which is mainly an electricity, natural gas and oil products trader, has completed the takeover of Intercereal, a major grain farmer in Ialomita County, southern Romania.

Iulius Group’s retail properties generated 453 million lei revenue together in 2019, an increase of 14% on the previous year, ZF has calculated from the data the Iulius Group officials supplied.

Regional investment fund SIF Banat-Crisana (SIF1.RO) said Friday in a stock market report that the funds FII Active Plus and FDI Active Dinamic, managed by SAI Swiss Capital Asset Management (AM), exceeded on November 5 the ownership threshold of 5%, reaching a holding of 5.1123%.

OTP Bank Romania, the subsidiary of the largest banking group in Hungary, reported a consolidated profit after tax of RON39 million in the first nine months of 2020, down 50.6% year-over-year, due to increased risk costs envisaged amid the Covid-19 pandemic, per the Hungarian group’s earnings report.

German Allianz Group ended the first nine months of 2020 with an operating profit of EUR7.8 billion, down 14.6% from the same period in 2019, per the Group’s financial report.

Impact Developer & Contractor (IMP.RO) said Friday it started phase four of its Greenfield project in northern Bucharest with 7,258 sqm of retail spaces and 1,184 sqm of offices.

Romania's finance ministry returns to the capital market with three new issues of government bonds for retail investors, following the success of the public sale offer (IPO) conducted in August.

Comcereal Tulcea (CTUL.RO), which stores and sells agricultural products, on Friday reported a turnover of RON29.6 million for the first nine months of 2020, down 42% on the year, and its loss deepened to RON1.76 million from RON1.12 million.

Germany’s Metro is trying again after two years to sell its real estate portfolio in Romania. The group seeks to sell and lease back the space of nine stores in its network, to streamline operations and secure cash.

The eight hotels of the Continental Hotels chain may close as of December 15, says CEO and chairman Radu Enache. The decision comes amid a significant decline in the revenue of the hotel company.

The deal European giants Deutsche Telekom and Orange have been negotiating over consolidation of their operations in Romania is one step away from an official announcement: Romtelecom, the fixed service division of Telekom Romania, will be acquired by Orange Romania.

Industrial abrasives manufacturer Carbochim Cluj Napoca (CBC.RO) ended the first nine months of 2020 with a net profit of RON1.3 million, up 286.6% year-over-year, and total revenue of RON24.8 million, down 7.8% year-over-year, per calculations by Ziarul Financiar (ZF) based on Carbochim's quarterly report published on the stock market Thursday.

The European Commission’s autumn 2020 economic forecast projects that the euro area economy will contract by 7.8% in 2020 before growing 4.2% in 2021 and 3% in 2022.

Romania's economy is expected to contract by 5.2% in 2020, followed by 3.3% growth in 2021 and 3.8% in 2022, according to the European Commission's autumn economic forecast released Thursday.