Slovakia
Bratislava - Wizz Air Holding announced that it intends to enter the Slovak airline market, launching its activities as of September with a Bratislava-Rome route.
According to the company's executive vice-president John Stephenson, Wizz Air is the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe. It has transported more than 6.5 million passengers over the past 12 months, and expects to carry 7.5 million in 2009. It currently operates from bases in 11 locations - in Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and, as of recently, in the Czech Republic as well. The vice-president doesn't rule out the airline opening a base in Slovakia.
Touching on the case of another airline - SkyEurope, which was awarded protection against its creditors by Bratislava I District Court last week, Stephenson said that Wizz Air would have entered the Slovak market regardless of its competitor's problems. At the same time, he wondered aloud why the responsible aviation authority hasn't taken any action and SkyEurope's aicrafts are still allowed to fly.
He added that Wizz Air is ready to take over SkyEurope's routes if necessary, stressing that Wizz Air is in good financial condition, and has ordered another 50 Airbus aircraft by 2017 to add to its existing fleet of 25 planes.
Source:
http://www.sktoday.com/content/1914_wizz-air-holding-enters-slovak-airline-market-ready-take-over-skyeurope
Romania
Dacia sales increased by 18% in the last seven months
de A.C. HotNews.ro
Luni, 3 august 2009, 16:28 English | Regional Europe
Dacia sales in France reached almost 30,000 cars in the first seven months
of the year, marking a 18% increase compared to last year, French Car Producers
Committee data reveals. Overall, the car market is on a positive road, with
a total of 1.32 million new cars sold after in July sales were by 3% higher
than the same month, last year.
Dacia sold some 29,700 cars in January - July, compared to 25,000 in the similar period, in 2008. The brand's market share increased from 1.9% to 2.2% while Renault sales increased by 1% with a market share of almost 22%
Source:
http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-regional_europe-6021702-france-dacia-sales-increased-18-the-last-seven-months.htm.
Ukraine-based steel manufacturing company Vorskla Steel AG (Kiev, Ukraine) plans to develop a steel mill with an investment of $920 million (€650 million). The mill will be located in an upcoming industrial and logistics park in Zahony, Hungary, near the Ukrainian border. According to reports from Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, TX), the project is expected to generate about 1,000 employment opportunities. With the proposed steelworks venture, Vorskla would be the first investor to establish operations at the industrial park.
The industrial and logistics park will be developed over an area of 170 hectares in the Zahony region, near Komoro and Fenyeslitke, in the administrative county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg in northeastern Hungary. The county shares borders with Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. Development of the park will entail an estimated investment of $18.5 million. The European Union recently pledged about $9.5 million in financial aid for the industrial park.
The industrial and logistics park is being developed as part of $170 million worth of developments planned in the Zahony region, which has railway connections to Russia and Ukraine. Infrastructure developments are being implemented in 16 settlements in the region, with the aim of evolving it as one of the largest and most sophisticated railway and logistics junctions along the eastern external border of the EU by summer 2012. The overall circulation of commodities between Zahony and Ukraine will increase from the current volume of 5.3 million tons per year to 8.5 million tons per year. The EU already has co-funded investments of more than $135 million toward this venture.
Source:
http://www.fandmmag.com/web/online/Industry-News/Ukraines-Vorskla-Steel-to-Develop-920-Million-Mill-in-Hungary/1$3709
The second largest Romanian bank in Romania, in terms
of assets, "BRD - Groupe Société Générale", posted a profit of 425 million
lei in H1 2009, down 17.4% YOY, from 515 million lei, according to a press
release issued yesterday by the company.
Patrick Gelin, President & Chief Executive Officer of BRD SocGen, feels
that the first semester of 2009 features a "sizeable slowdown in loan demand
and heightened risk increase, for individual customers as well as for SMEs".
Still, he added that due to the efficiency of the bank"s internal procedures,
the steps taken for cutting overall expenses and to improve the quality
of its portfolio, BRD has proven its ability to weather a difficult environment.
The return on equity (ROE) was 22.3% at the end of H1, whereas the cost/earnings
ratio remained stable at 43.8 %. The net banking revenue (from interest
rates, commissions and financial operations) reached 1.63 billion lei (387
million Euros), up over 17% over H1 2008, and gross operating profit increased
19.4% YOY to 919 million lei.
According to brokers, the results of BRD beat estimates, with speculators
anticipating by a few weeks an increase in profits thus causing the share
price to rise more than 25%, to 10.5 lei/share in Monday"s trading session.
"BRD"s net profit dropped 17.4%, which was better than our expected 20%
drop", said Antonela Badea, financial analyst at brokerage firm "Tradeville".
According to Mrs. Badea, even though operating profit increased over last
year, the increase in non-performing loans required the creation of greater
provisions, which affected the net profit.
The total revenues of the bank in the January - June period amounted to
9.55 billion lei, one third greater than H1 2008 revenues, whereas total
expenses increased 37%, to 9.03 billion lei.
"Revenues have increased significantly, because the bank successfully increased
its loan portfolio, compared to Q1 2008. Still, loans decreased 1% from
the beginning of the year, with a significant increase being noticeable
in the case of deposits", Mrs. Badea added.
The company granted a total of 32.2 billion
lei in loans in H1 2009, up 11% YOY, of which 15.8 billion lei to individuals
and 16.4 billion lei to companies. Customers" deposits amounted to 29.1
billion lei, at the end of June.
"For 2009, we estimate a net profit of 914.4
million lei, 19% lower than last year, with net banking revenues to increase
8%, up to 3.3 billion lei", Antonela Badea concluded.
According to analysts, the bank"s main advantages
are its extensive network of agencies, the variety of its banking products
and activity sectors, and the financial support of the main-bank Société
Générale, as well as its above-average solvency ratio.
The analysts also said that weaknesses of
the bank come from high overhead expenses and the fact that the loan-deposit
ratio is higher than 1.
"BRD-Groupe Société Générale" is the second
largest Romanian bank in terms of assets, and the seventh largest bank in
terms of share capital.
Trading of shares of "BRD-Groupe Société Générale"
on the Bucharest Stock Exchange began on January 15th, 2001, with the symbol
BRD. The company has a share capital of 696.90 million lei, split into shares
with a face value of 1 leu.