The Diplomat Bucharest

Oil and gas group opens new stations
Oil and gas group OMV Romania invested last month six million Euro in three new petrol stations in Bacau, Sibiu and Bucharest, all including food and drink areas as well as playgrounds. The stations plan to serve around a total of 3,000 customers per day. OMV’s 75 Romanian petrol stations have a ten per cent market share.

Glass giant insulation product launch
Glass and construction materials manufacturer Saint Gobain will invest 30 million Euro this year in a glass-coating line in its existing factory in Calarasi. Using a product imported from Poland, the sheets of glass are coated with thin layers of different oxides to improve the quality of their insulation. In the factory, Saint-Gobain will produce the glass for office building facades, which regulate the heat from the sun during the summer and insulate the property during the winter.

Leasing group starts organic ops
Starting from July Deutsche Leasing Romania, part of Deutsche Leasing International, will begin its activity on the Romanian financial leasing market. The main share holder of Deutsche Leasing International is the German company Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.
Finance group starts up health insurance
Finance group Signal Iduna Group has entered the Romanian insurance market under the name Signal Iduna Asigurari de Viata. The company will specialise in health insurance under general manager Sorin Niculescu, the ex-director of Omniasig Addenda. Signal Iduna Asigurari de Viata will have a share capital of seven million Euro.

Fuel deposits planned for Danube
Oil and gas company Mol plans to build a logistic centre for fuel storage on the Danube river south of Bucharest in an attempt to cut Mol’s dependency on Austrian OMV-owned Petrom’s fuels. “In Hungary there is a tight competition between Mol and OMV, whereas in Romania Petrom has a very strong position in the market and the company uses this to increase over and over again the price for fuels which we buy to sell here,” said Laszlo Varro, Mol’s strategy manager, according to Hotnews. He estimates the investment at around 100 million Euro. The exact location has not yet been established. Building the logistics centre may take around one year. The company is searching for a location with a cheap form of transport, preferably by water on the Danube. Mol intends to bring its own fuel from its refinery in Hungary.

Tyre subsidiary opens locally
Tyre producer Bridgestone Europe has established new sales and marketing subsidiaries in Romania, Slovakia and Latvia, which were expected to begin operations as The Diplomat went to press. “Our sales in Romania, Slovakia and Baltic countries show a significant growth in recent years,” said Gerry Duffy, vice president sales & marketing Bridgestone Europe.

Meat producer heads to Iasi
Meat, sausage and canned meat producer Zwanenberg Food Group (ZFG) has bought around ten hectares in Podul Iloaiee, Iasi county. Newspaper Business Standard quoted sourcse stating the Dutch group intends to invest 20 million Euro in the construction a meat processing factory.

Soft drinks groups extends production
Tymbark Maspex Romania, part of the Polish group Maspex Wadowice will invest 30 million Euro in the construction of another production centre of soft drinks at Valenii de Munte, Prahova county, according to ZF. “After this investment, the plant from Valenii de Munte will become the biggest of th Maspex Group,” said a company official. Maspex entered the Romanian market with La Festa products in 1996 and in 2001 took over a canning plant in Valenii de Munte which they transformed into a soft drinks factory. Last year the Polish group purchased 80 per cent of Romanian pasta producers Arnos.

Deluxe watch and jewellery store to open
Bucharest’s Calea Victoriei will see a new one million Euro high class watch and jewellery store opened by Helvetansa set to open by the end of 2008. “One area will be exclusively dedicated to haute horologerie,” says Adrian Stoican, Managing Director of Helvetansa. The luxury Swiss retailer owns two stores in Bucharest and one in Pitesti.

Shopping malls faces revamp
Developer the Anchor Grup will expand and renovate its shopping mall Plaza Romania, including the construction of an additional floor above the G’market supermarket. In addition the developers will construct a new mezzanine floor which will be accessible from the first floor. Plaza Romania was opened in 2004 and is located in west Bucharest on Blvd Timisoara.

Telecom giant buys out local retailer
Vodafone has bought Romanian local retailer of mobile telephone products and services Vegastel. This includes 60 stores located mostly in Moldavia and in Bucharest. Vegastel will become an exclusive dealer of Vodafone Romania products. The second largest mobile operator in the country, Vodafone Romania currently has 8.9 million customers.

Local bank targets Turks and Chinese
Libra Bank has opened a new branch in Voluntari, Ilfov county, which will target the Turkish and Chinese business community in the area. For this year Libra Bank plans to expand its network by ten more units. The bank, which currently has 21 branches, is owned by American investment group New Century Holdings(NCH).