Prime Minister in hard sell for
Austrian steel deal
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Prime Minister Tariceanu visited the
headquarters of Austrian steel producer
Voestalpine last month in an attempt to
convince the company’s leadership to
choose Romania for its 5.5 to seven billion
Euro investment in a new steel factory.
Voestalpine has expressed its intention
to build in the Black Sea region. Romania
and Bulgaria are favoured, but Ukraine
and Turkey are also under consideration as
a possible location for the Austrian plant.
“In taking our decision it is very important
for us to know how badly a country
wants to attract such an investment,”
said the CEO of Voestalpine Wolfgang
Eder. “Prime Minister Tariceanu did his
best to persuade us that Romania is a
good location for our investment.”
The Austrian company will take a
decision by the end of this summer, say
Romanian Government offi cials.
The possible location in Romania
would be near Constanta, southeast Romania,
on a 1,000 hectares plot of land,
said Radu Mazare, mayor of Constanta.
According to Der Standard, Turkey and
Ukraine could be favoured by Voestalpine
because the environmental regulations are
not as strict as in EU member states Romania
and Bulgaria. Meanwhile the Bulgarian
Government has promised cheaper
electricity to Voestalpine, starting in 2013
when its new nuclear power plant Belene
plans to be ready.
Romania is interesting due to the high
development of its car industry, especially
because of the presence of Renault and
Ford’s purchase of car plant Automobile
Craiova in southern Romania. Ease of
transport is also a crucial issue. Before
Tariceanu’s visit to Voestalpine HQ, he
agreed with his Austrian counterpart to
facilitate Danube river transport route
between the two countries.
Deutsche Bank gets wise to local
real estate opportunities
Deutsche Bank has bought three real
estate projects in north Bucharest from
various investment funds for 340 million
Euro.
RREEF Real Estate, part of a department
that manages alternative investments
at a global level inside Deutsche
Bank, has acquired three real estate
projects from several investment funds
represented in Romania by businessman
Ioannis Papalikas.
The projects include two office
buildings and two residential buildings,
under development in northern
Bucharest, on 9 to 11 Strada Fabrica de
Glucoza. RREEF Real Estate acquires
and manages investments in retail and
residential spaces.
Wind project in Dobrogea
preparing for goahead
Investment fund in renewable energy in
Poland and Romania Continental Wind
Partners (CWP) is preparing to begin
construction on a 0.5 billion Euro deal to
build a 345 MW wind farm in Dobrogea.
The company was still looking for
further fi nancing for this project as we
went to press.
However CWP has all the necessary
permits for construction from the authorities
to start the works, CEO of CWP
Adam de Sola Pool told The Diplomat.
This is part of an agreement CWP has
with Romanian state company Transelectrica,
consisting of a total energy capacity
of 600 MW. But Adam de Sola Pool said
the company “plans to build more” than
600 MW in all areas of Romania, including
in the centre and west of the country.
Energy giants Enel and Iberdrola
have also invested in developing projects
for wind energy in the Dobrogea region.
Mangalia set for solar experiment
Rominservices Therm, a public-private
partnership created at the end of 2002
between Rompetrol-owned Rominserv
and the Mangalia Local Council, plans
to install 600 solar panels in Mangalia
by 2010 in an investment of around 1.2
million Euro.
Set over 720 sqm, the installation is
designed to support the supply of hot water
and heating to residential properties.
“During the current crude oil evolution,
identifi cation and usage of new
renewable energy sources, with a minimum
impact over the environment, may
be a viable alternative to fossil fuels,”
said Iulian Staicu, general manager of
Rominservices Therm.
The company says the residents of
Mangalia will see their energy prices
reduce by at least fi ve per cent.
Private pensions: ING has the
most, BCR the wealthiest
From the compulsory private pensions
issued between October 2007 and
March 2008, pension fund BCR Fond de
Pensii has attracted the richest customers
from the market, with an average monthly
contribution of 8.52 Euro, according to
the National House of Pensions and Other
Social Insurance Rights (CNPAS). The
Austrian-owned fund is closely followed
by AIG Fond de Pensii with an average
contribution 8.50 Euro and ING Fond de
Pensii with 8.45 Euro per customer.
ING Fond de Pensii remains market
leader with a 33.2 per cent market share
and 1.4 million clients, followed by Allianz-
Tiriac Fond de Pensii with 1.1 million
clients and Generali Fond de Pensii
with about 400,000.
Short News
State bank splashes 50 million Euro
on rebranding
State-owned savings bank CEC spent
45 million Euro on the fi rst stage of rebranding
its corporate portfl io as CEC
Bank with the revamping of 600 branches
and more than fi ve million Euro on
promoting the new image. The bank has
an additional 800 units and expects to
finish the rebranding process by 2011.
The main objective of CEC for 2008 is
to increase its market share from 4.2 per
cent to at least fi ve per cent. CEC was
planned to be privatised in 2006 but due
to the low price offered by the suitors, the
Government cancelled the tender.
Timis, Cluj and Poland fi ght for Daimler
While Polish media insists its nation will
be the site for the new Daimler factory,
the vehicle company is in talks to set up a
compact car factory for Mercedes-Benz
in Timis county, reported Reuters, quoting
county council authorities. The potential
site could be between Timisoara
and Arad, close to Serbia and Hungary
on the fourth European transport corridor.
Daimler was due to make a decision
on where in eastern Europe to open the
plant as we went to press. The German
company is also interested in Cluj-Napoca
and Ujazd, southern Poland.
Unicredit and Ergo team up to sell
life insurance
Unicredit Group and Ergo, part of German financial services company Munich Re, are launching a joint-venture to sell mixed life insurances in Romania. Business operations will start this year with the sales of unit-linked life insurance and credit protection insurance, which complement traditional banking products.
Allen & Overy wins local associaton
with law offi ce RTPR
London law firm Allen & Overy has
launched an exclusive association with
local law fi rm Radu Taracila Padurari
Retevoescu (RTPR). The associated offi
ce will be part of the UK fi rm’s central
and east European regional practice led
by Jane Townsend. The associated office will practise under the name ‘Radu
Taracila Padurari Retevoescu SCA in
association with Allen & Overy LLP’.
Founded in 2004, RTPR has fi ve partners
and a total of 33 lawyers.
Spanish private equity eyes local property
Spanish private equity company Azora
will develop real estate projects worth
500 million Euro, in Bucharest, Brasov,
Oradea, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara.
“We are in due diligence for the take over
of 50 per cent of a residential project in
sector 1 of Bucharest and we are looking
for projects in large province cities such
as Timisoara, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca and
Oradea,” Simona Gheorghe, Azora Europe’s
representative told daily newspaper
Ziarul Financiar.
Mining company for sale
Privatisation Authority (AVAS) has put
up for sale 100 per cent of shares in Cupru
Min in an open auction on 7 August 2008.
Cupru Min extracts limestone and andesite
from the mineral deposits at a mine
in Rosia Poeni, Alba county. Three other
Romanian companies have the right to
extract and process copper ore until 2017
from the same mine. The minimum price
of a share is about ten Euro and the total
value of the stock package auctioned by
the Privatisation Authority is estimated
at 25.6 million Euro.
Dutch gas group takeover interest rumoured
Dutch liquefied petroleum gas group SHV Gas is rumoured to be entering the Romanian market through the acquisition of local gas cylinder business of the Romanian group Crimbo, owned by local businessman Cristi Borcea. When approached by The Diplomat, officials at SHV Gas refused to comment on the transaction speculation.
Serbian supermarket looks to
acquisiton targets
Serbian retail group Delta Maxi, which
owns the Piccadilly, Tempo and Maxi
brands, aims to break into the Romanian
market through the acquisition of a local
chain of supermarkets. “We wanted to
enter the Romanian market by purchasing
the local Artima chain of supermarkets,
but we lost the battle to Carrefour Romania,”
says Stefan Kossev, general manager
of Piccadilly. “For now we are trying to
identify another player that we could
takeover.” In Romania, the company will
probably initially set up the discount format,
Tempo, as the first of its supermarket
operations.
