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  • 42 milioane de euro pentru 5 km de cale ferata

    În aproape trei ani de zile şi după ce au încasat de la statul român peste 42 milioane de euro, austriecii de la PORR au reuşit "performanţa" de a moderniza doar cinci kilometri de cale ferată din totalul aproape 48 cât are tronsonul Câmpina – Predeal. Lucrările, care ar trebui finalizate în toamna lui 2010, sunt întârziate cu mai bine de un an de zile, după cum au declarat pentru Gândul surse din cadrul companiei naţionale de căi ferate CFR SA, responsabilă cu gestionarea infrastructurii feroviare.
    Cititi mai multe pe www.gandul.info
     

  • Porsche ar putea fuziona cu Volkswagen

    Propunerile analizate includ fuziunea celor două companii şi găsirea unui investitor care să preia o participaţie la noul grup, sau vânzarea diviziei de automobile sport , Porsche AG, către VW, în schimbul unei sume în numerar şi acţiuni, a spus una dintre surse. "Schimbările structurale ale Porsche sunt inevitabile", a declarat Marc-Rene Tonn, analist la compania M.M. Warburg din Hamburg.
    Cititi mai multe pe www.mediafax.ro
     

  • Au intrat banii de la FMI. BNR a redus dobanda cheie

    Mesajul este cat se poate de clar: bancheri, ieftiniti creditele in lei, economia trebuie relansata! Mutarea este atipica pentru Banca Nationala si i-a luat prin surprindere pe specialisti. Banca Nationala a redus dobanda cheie la 9,5%. Se doreste astfel incurajarea imprumuturilor in moneda noastra. Nici creditarea in euro nu a fost neglijata. Potrivit unei decizii mai vechi a bancii centrale, din 24 mai bancile vor avea la dispozitie cateva sute de milioane de euro in plus pentru imprumuturi, bani care au fost pana acum in rezerva BNR.
    Cititi mai multe pe www.stirileprotv.ro
     

  • Dezvoltatorii de locuinte vin cu oferte noi pentru stimularea vanzarilor

    „Special pentru acest targ, (…) la predarea apartamentului la cheie, proprietarul primeste 300 de euro pe luna timp de 3 ani", spun reprezentantii Ocif Group. Proiectul este format din 110 apartamente, cu un pret mediu de 2.100-2.200 euro/mp, potrivit reprezentantilor companiei.
    Cititi mai multe pe www.zf.ro

  • Oferta de criza: apartament si 300 de euro lunar de la dezvoltator

    "La predarea apartamentului la cheie, proprietarul primeste 300 de euro pe luna timp de 3 ani” a declarat Cristina Danila, director de marketing al Ocif Group. Potrivit datelor furnizate, cel mai bine s-au vandut apartamentele de doua si de trei camere, la un pret mediu de 2.100 – 2.200 de euro pe metru patrat, plus TVA.

     

    Vivando Unirii este localizat pe strada 11 Iunie si este compus din 110 apartamente din care au fost vandute peste o treime. Cladirea are un regim de inaltime S+P+3E+4R+M, cu 6 intrari. Proiectul este format din apartamente cu 1, 2, 3 si 4 camere si beneficiaza de facilitati precum sala de fitness, camera de joaca pentru copii, parcare subterana si acces securizat.
     

  • Sonae Sierra: Nu putem estima cand vom inaugura proiectele din Romania

    Compania, care si-a facut intrarea pe piata locala in 2007 prin achizitia proiectului River Plaza din Ramnicu-Valcea, are in dezvoltare pe plan local trei proiecte comerciale in Bucuresti (ParkLake Plaza, in parteneriat cu Caelum Development) Craiova si Ploiesti, proiecte a caror finalizare a fost amanata, ca urmare a contextului economic.

     

    "Sonae Sierra este, ca si alte companii, afectata de criza de pe pietele financiare. Aceasta situatie a cauzat revizuirea etapelor de dezvoltare ale proiectelor planificate", au mai mentionat reprezentantii dezvoltatorului. Acestia au mai mentionat ca deruleaza in prezent activitati de optimizare a designului si a specificatiilor tehnice pentru fiecare proiect si activitati de intensificare a proceselor de preinchiriere si cautare a unei finantari bancare.

     

    Cele trei proiecte ale companiei aveau o valoare estimata de circa 900 de milioane de euro. Cel mai mare dintre ele este ParkLake Plaza, cu o investitie estimata la aproape 600 mil. euro, care ar trebui sa aiba 110.000 de metri patrati inchiriabili, in timp ce proiectele din Craiova si Ploiesti sunt planificate sa aiba 55.000 de metri patrati inchiriabili respectiv 64.000 mp inchiriabili.

     

    Cele doua proiecte din provincie nu vor fi primele din cele doua orase, potrivit datelor comunicate de catre dezvoltatori si consultanti pentru realizarea suplimentului "Piata Imobiliara – Iesirea din criza?". Astfel, in Craiova este anuntat spre finalizare, in trimestrul II al anului viitor, proiectul West Gate (40.000 mp inchiriabili) in timp ce in Ploiesti este planificat spre inaugurare Ploiesti Mall, la finalul lui 2010, potrivit celor mai recente informatii.
     

  • Who will remain on top?

    Hopes of volumes and profit of the top companies in Romania have significantly dimmed not only compared with last year but also compared with the estimates of the first few months of 2009. The hardest hit are the companies in the industrial sector. First quarter results confirm declines for all the top ten companies by turnover, which could lose more than 4 billion euros this year, as well as their position among the biggest businesses in Romania.

    In Galati, 12,000 employees are expecting options to keep their jobs this year from Augustine Kochurampil, chief executive of Arcelor Mittal Galati. The manager decided after Easter to move to crisis Plan B, and took a few steps to keep things afloat. ”We do not expect things to go back to where they were last year any sooner than two or three years, but we hope for an improvement in demand in the second half of this year and for the time being, even though we did not need 11,700 people to work at 40% capacity, we are looking for options to cope,” Augustine Kochurampil says. The manager’s plan, to work exclusively to order (instead of building stocks), to close the coke and chemical plant, to request employees to take ten days of leave and five days of technical unemployment in rotation, complemented the European strategy of Arcelor Mittal, which decided to close 14 furnaces of the 25 it had in Europe, as well as to completely shut down the plants in Florange (France) and Liege (Belgium).

    ”I’ve been in the steel business for thirty years and I have never seen such a decline in price and demand for steel,” says Kochurampil, who, in his thirty-year career has restructured a bankrupt plant in Germany, another plant that worked based on non-performing barters in Kazakhstan, as well as a plant in Poland where he saw the most difficult strikes, thus going through several crises on the steel market. The current crisis, which reached all economy sectors, has been a hard test for metallurgy in general and for Mittal Galati in particular, with the plant now operating at 40% capacity, without too much of a chance to rebound for the rest of the year.

    The decline of the plant in Galati will probably be the most serious experienced by any major company in Romania this year. The most affected top ten companies this year (which include mostly players from petroleum and telecom industries, as well as from retail, metallurgy, distribution and industry), believes Codrut Pascu, manager of the local office of strategic consultancy Roland Berger, will be ArcelorMittal, Dacia Group, Petrom and Rompetrol, and the least affected will be the retail companies. By ”affected’ the consultant means the decline of the turnover due to the overall decline of the markets, as well as the profitability that will allow them to survive.

    Each company among the biggest in Romania is taking into account significant two-digit declines of its business, with the first quarter results confirming their suppositions: Petrom is talking about 33% lower business in 2009, Rompetrol Rafinare anticipates 50% full-year decline, Rompetrol Downstream could go down by 20%. Mittal has already resigned itself to a potential 60% drop, while Lukoil Romania estimates decreases of 30% (the decline for Petrotel-Lukoil refinery is estimated to be even more serious, around 40-45%). The biggest companies in industry in Romania are now talking about a halving of their business, while the telecom and retail companies are somewhat luckier, as their decline will be less serious this year.

  • Three Moldavian beers

    Martens. Bermas. Albrau. Galati, Suceava, Onesti. The smallest three brewers in Romania are not necessarily the last independents in the field, as other beer businesses not connected to the multinational giants are that of brothers Ioan and Viorel Micula, the biggest local food group, as well as Romaqua’s, the producer of the Borsec water, which has recently entered the beer market with the Albacher brand. What the three small producers, all of them focused around Moldova, have in common is that they lack large production capacity, nationally known brands and promotion, on a market dominated more and more authoritatively by the world’s biggest brewers.

    Heineken, InBev and Ursus Breweries have bought local producers one by one, and the sale of Bere Azuga at the start of this year ended the row of major transactions in this field. ”The rest are not important because they have very low market shares and low production capacities,” says Gheorghe Grec, one of the former shareholders of Bere Mures, who believes only the real estate factor could help stir some interest in the takeover of one of the three producers. Martens Galati, Bermas Suceava and Albrau Onesti are present in their areas with less established brands and production capacities of about 200,000 hectolitres (in comparison, Heineken, the leader of the market, has a technical capacity of 7.7 million hectolitres, 1.6 million hectolitres of which acquired with the takeover of Bere Mures). In a word, they lack exactly what a multinational seeks when it looks at acquisitions on a local market – a significant production capacity and strong brand.

    ”The producers that are still independent do not have any powerful brands and the major ones already have enough production capacity in Romania,” believes Shachar Shaine, chairman of United Romanian Breweries Bereprod, which makes Tuborg, adding that the multinational he represents has not been and is not interested in any acquisition. The three small producers have not given too much thought to this lifeline: Vasile Joanta, the manager of the Galati-based producer Martens, says that although he has not received any takeover offers until now, just ”various questions exploring the possibility”, he is open to such talks in the future.

  • Business on the ski track

    In fact, Austria has been the No. 1 destination for Romanian tourists this winter season. Over 30% more Romanians have been willing to travel over 1,500 kilometres and spend 650 euros per person on average for a 7-night package in Austria.

    The same standard applies in resorts throughout the country. Firstly, the pistes fall into three categories – blue ones are easy, red ones are of medium difficulty, and the black ones are the most difficult. The pistes are usually accessible by means of a gondola or a cable car that takes skiers up, to a main centre. From there, they take ski-lifts or by chairlifts (increasingly rare) and are taken to the higher pistes. Every year, Austrian resorts invest over 50% of the season’s earnings in developing the ski infrastructure. In the last season, investments totalled 557 million euros, with a significant share (203 million euros) being dedicated to developing the artificial snow infrastructure. Additionally, the 2008- 2009 season saw investments worth 122 million euros in building a new piste, ski lifts, car parks and other facilities.

    The après-ski offer (i.e. after-ski entertainment) has also become a tradition in Austria. Cable facilities close at around 4 PM, after which skiers find their way to outdoor or indoor bars. One of the most famous is Elizabeth in Ischgl, the bar on the ground floor of the English-style Elizabeth hotel, where tourists dance in ski boots, while the entertainment is provided by girls dancing in traditional Tyrolean outfits.

    Skiing seasons are opened and closed by major concerts. For instance, Ischgl saw the season end on May 2nd with a Kylie Minogue concert, as part of the Top of the Mountain concert. Additionally, investors and the Austrian authorities are spending significant sums into extending the ski season. Whilst December, January and February are considered to be peak months, one can ski for more than 6 months on glaciers, from November to May. And, given that the quality of snow is greatly prized, 203 million euros were invested in developing the artificial snow infrastructure alone, so over 60% of Austrian pistes are covered with artificial snow.

  • Ochelarii de milioane de euro

     

    “Pentru anul acesta, toate proiectele sunt blocate si nu avem bugetata o crestere a cifrei de afaceri”, spune Elena Cristescu, directorul executiv si coproprietara Grup Cris, care detine magazinele de optica medicala Opticris. Planurile initiale vizau deschiderea a inca zece magazine in diverse malluri din tara, dar intarzierile din piata imobiliara au impiedicat aceasta dezvoltare. Dar nici sotii Cristescu, patronii companiei, nu se grabesc; o pauza de consolidare a afacerii era binevenita dupa dublarea numarului de magazine anu trecut.
     
    Grupul Cris, controlat de Elena si Cornel Cristescu, provine dintr-o mica fabrica de rame pentru ochelari infiintata in 1947 de Niculae Cristescu (tatal lui Cornel Cristescu). In timp, i s-au adaugat si alte trei ramuri: import, distributie si retail de produse de optica medicala. “Primele ateliere au fost deschise inca din perioada comunista si productia a inceput intr-o fabrica din Cluj, relocata apoi in judetul Salaj, acolo unde functioneaza si astazi”, povesteste Elena Cristescu. Recunoaste ca la inceput nu a fost prea atrasa de domeniul opticii medicale, ci de retail in sine. Imediat dupa ‘90, Elena Cristescu a deschis mai multe consignatii, unde vindea tot felul de produse, in genul celor din bazaruri: “Mi-a placut dintotdeauna sa vand, eu sunt un om de vanzari”.
     
    Migrarea de la magazinele proprii la afacerea sotului s-a produs in 1993, cand familia Cristescu a decis sa infiinteze primul magazin Opticris la Cluj. Astazi sunt 21 de unitati in Bucuresti si in alte sapte mari orase ale tarii, dupa ce anul trecut reteaua s-a dublat in urma unor investitii de 4 mil. euro. Elena Cristescu spune ca dezvoltarea s-a facut doar din rulaj propriu, fara credite, o situatie care, in contextul economic de astazi, contribuie la soliditatea companiei: “Daca am fi luat credite de la banca, poate ca am fi avut astazi 100 de noi magazine si nu 21, dar noi am preferat sa ne dezvoltam prin propriile forte, pentru ca este mai sigur”.
     
    Anul 2009 este an de consolidare si pentru Paul Licsor, care, impreuna cu importatorul si distribuitorul de produse de optica medicala AMC (detinut de Szabo Csaba), controleaza magazinele Optiplaza. Reteaua Optiplaza este formata din 20 de magazine, dintre care opt operate in sistem de franciza in provincie, iar restul in Bucuresti. Pentru anul acesta, sunt prevazute doua deschideri de magazine, dintre care unul in cadrul Cotroceni Park. Compania urmareste, incepand cu 2010, intensificarea procesului de extindere in afara granitelor Romaniei, asta dupa ce anul trecut a deschis un magazin in centrul comercial MallDova din Chisinau. “In 2009 ne vom consolida, chiar cu pretul inchiderii a unui magazin sau doua”, spune Paul Licsor. Despre o recalibrare a planurilor de extindere pe fondul crizei vorbeste si Dragos Rosca, CEO-ul fondului de investitii Gemisa Investments, care administreaza reteaua Optical Network, reprezentata in retail prin magazinele Optiblu. “Planul investitional s-a redimensionat pentru ca o parte din proiectele imobiliare s-a amanat, iar pe de alta parte efectele crizei ne fac sa tratam cu mai multa atentie, mai ales in provincie, viitoarele investitii”, spune Rosca intr-un interviu acordat BUSINESS Magazin. In consecinta, din cele doua inaugurari programate pentru anul acesta, doar un singur magazin ar putea fi deschis. “Se observa o incetinire a cresterii retailului (mai mult de jumatate afacerile Gemisa vine din retail si distributie – n. red.), pentru ca este o mai mica disponibilitate bancara, deci resurse mai mici pentru investitii, si in plus nici piata nu este prea prietenoasa, astfel incat sansele de a face un magazin sa fie profitabil intr-un timp decent sunt foarte mici”, explica CEO-ul Gemisa.
     
    Declaratiile sale se refera la intregul portofoliu al fondului, care inglobeaza zece companii din domeniul retailului, distributiei, serviciilor financiare si medicale, ale caror cifre de afaceri au totalizat circa 30-35 de milioane de euro in 2008. Reteaua Optiblu numara 19 magazine in Bucuresti si in provincie (Constanta, Oradea, Galati si Ploiesti), dintre care trei sunt operate in sistem de franciza. Magazinele Optiblu au functionat initial drept cornere (segmente clar semnalizate) in cadrul farmaciilor Sensiblu, care fac parte din grupul farmaceutic A&D Pharma, controlat de aceiasi actionari care detin si Gemisa Investments. In 2004 proiectul a fost separat de farmacii si preluat de Gemisa Investments, care a infiintat compania Optical Network: “Un magazin independent ne-a permis o alta pozitionare din punctul de vedere al imaginii, una mai bine conturata si individualizata”, spune seful Gemisa, care a propus prin noul concept Optiblu un magazin mai mare (pana la 200 mp). Cele mai multe Optiblu se afla amplasate in galerii comerciale si in malluri, deoarece locatiile stradale nu au mai asigurat un trafic satisfacator de clienti in raport cu chiriile practicate. Pe de alta parte, aglomerarea centrelor comerciale din ultimii ani a facut ca acum foarte putine malluri sa fie performante, apreciaza Rosca. Directorul Gemisa considera situatia cu atat mai grava cu cat si consumul din acest tip de afacere a scazut dramatic, de pana la 40-60%, “in conditiile in care zona-tampon a profiturilor este destul de mica”. Scaderile afacerilor sunt antrenate nu doar de perioada critica momentana, dar si de specificul acestei zone de business, unde peste 60% dintre clienti sunt pensionari si unde mai exista si obisnuinta ca o persoana cu venituri medii sa isi schimbe ochelarii de doua-trei ori in viata. De aceea magazinele de optica au marsat din ce in ce mai mult pe vanzarea de lentile de contact si ochelari de soare, segmente care pot aduce atat valoare adaugata mai mare, dar si clienti cu venituri mai mari.