business review issue 3, february 1-7, 2010

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Despite low occupancy rates in 2009, several existing hotel chains will expand with

new brands across the country, such as Hilton with Doubletree at Oradea, while new

names are still planning market entry in the next two years

See pages 18-19

Despite low occupancy rates in 2009, several existing hotel chains will expand with

new brands across the country, such as Hilton with Doubletree at Oradea, while new

names are still planning market entry in the next two years

See pages 18-19

MONEYBCR has become the first local lender to

have set up shop in Second Life, joining

banks who have already done so at

international level

See pages 10-11

POWERThe state has finally set up two national

energy conglomerates, Electra and

Hidroenergetica, but commentators say

this is not a long-term approach

See page 14

LINKSOperators on the telecom market are

focusing on fixed and mobile data

services, higher internet speeds and

digital television networks

See page 15

EADS WILL INVEST EUR 100 MLN IN BRASOV COMPONENTS FACTORY; SEE NEWS ON PAGE 5

HOTELSREDOUBLE

EXPANSION

HOTELSREDOUBLE

EXPANSION

BUSINESS REVIEWROMANIA’S PREMIERE BUSINESS WEEKLY FEBRUARY 1 - 7, 2010 / VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3

www.business-review.ro

BUSINESS REVIEW / February 1 - 7, 2010 3

I N T O U C H

Audited 1H 2007

Italiana No.10 Str., 2nd Floor, Ap.3 Bucharest - Romania E-mails: [email protected];

ISSN No. 1453 - 729XPrinted at: MASTER PRINT SUPER OFFSET

Founding EditorBILL AVERY

Editor-in-ChiefSIMONA FODOR

Deputy Editor-in-ChiefCORINA S~CEANU

Senior JournalistsDANA CIURARUANDA DRAGAN OTILIA HARAGA

Copy EditorDEBBIE STOWE

ContributorMICHAEL BARCLAY

ResearchSIMONA BAZAVAN

PhotographerLAURENTIU OBAE

LayoutBEATRICE GHEORGHIU

Executive DirectorGEORGE MOISE

Sales & Events DirectorOANA MOLODOI Marketing Manager

ADINA MILEASales & Events

IULIAN BABEANU CLAUDIA MUNTEANUFREDERIC VIGROUX

Sales ConsultantGIUSEPPINA BURLUI

Research & SubscriptionALEXANDRA TOADER

ProductionDAN MITROI Distribution

EUGEN MU{AT

FEBRUARY 1 - 7, 2010 / VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3

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X

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

The extremely cold weather in

Romania in the last two

weeks, with temperatures

plunging to minus 32 degrees

Celsius in Miercurea Ciuc, has

caused 50 deaths, delays to

train schedules, higher energy

consumption and a state of

emergency in supplying

natural gas.

Business Review is a foundingmember of the Romanian AuditBureau for Circulation (BRAT)

Health is wealthI was pleased to see your

recent feature on quittingsmoking (How to stay smokefree in 2010, issue 1). In thebusiness world in recentyears, there has been increas-ing awareness of the stressthat executives and managerscan come under.

After a long day at the of-fice, cooking a good meal of-ten seems less appealing thatpicking up some junk food; ifnetworking is part of your job,it’s easy to overdo your alco-hol consumption; and thepressures of the workplacecan lead some to seek relief innicotine.

While people in Westernsocieties are becoming ever

more protective of theirhealth, this was not a trend Inoticed here when I first cameto Romania, with its highrates of smoking and oftenunhealthy eating habits.

But mentalities seem to beslowly changing, and the me-dia has a big role to play inthat. I look forward to morehealth and fitness related arti-cles in the future.

Paul David, Bacau

A taxing propositionMark Gibbins of KPMG is

right to caution that the gov-ernment’s idea of generatingfunds by raising taxes couldbackfire (Experts grapplewith a taxing conundrum, is-sue 2).

Think of it this way: a taxacts as a disincentive to dosomething. When the tax oncigarettes is increased, peoplesmoke less.

Any tax on income orwealth can be thought of as adisincentive to economic ac-tivity. Certainly, in responseto the economic crisis, gov-ernments elsewhere havesought to cut tax, rather thanraise it. Lower taxes stimulatethe making and spending ofmoney, both of which are vitalfor economies to emerge fromthe recession.

Long term, this will fill,not deplete, the governmentcoffers. Let’s see some long-term thinking on this.

Andre Vlad, Bucharest

I N T O U C H

Please send your letters to [email protected], including your name and location.

For consideration for inclusion in the next edition, letters must be received by noon on Thurs-

day. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and accuracy.

Week in

NUMBERS

The Finance Ministry is planningto attract around EUR 714 mil-lion through the next state titlesissuance in February

Low-cost airline Blue Air is

expecting a EUR 200 million

turnover for this year

714

200

UTI has secured a EUR 68 million

loan from Raiffeisen Bank for

expansion

68

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BUSINESS REVIEW / February 1 - 7, 20104

GarantiBank Romania almost

doubled its assets and posted an in-

crease of over 50 percent in its loans

volume in 2009 on 2008. The

lender’s assets rose to EUR 830 mil-

lion from EUR 450 million in 2008.

Meanwhile the total loans approved

by the bank went up to EUR 550

million, from EUR 350 million in

2008.

“The growth posted last year

was due to a strong management

risk and liquidities strategy and the

support offered to our customers,”

said Murat Atay, general manager of

GarantiBank Romania.

He added that the lender came

into the market in 2009 with prod-

ucts and services dedicated to dif-

ferent customer segments such as

teachers and public sector employ-

ees.

“We intend to implement the

same strategy again this year, when

we expect the local banking market

to continue to develop,” said Atay.

Anda Dragan

Cigarette producer Philip Morriswill temporarily close down its fac-tory in Otopeni, close to Bucharest,putting its 450 employees in techni-cal unemployment, the companyhas announced. The tobacco firmhas seen cigarette sales drop recent-ly, while the consumption of smug-gled cigarettes has risen. The in-crease in tobacco excises from EUR50 to EUR 74 per 1,000 cigarettes inJanuary this year has also affectedsales.

“This was a difficult decision.Despite the major efforts we madeto avoid this measure, the market re-ality hasn’t offered us any alterna-tive. According to our internal cur-rent estimations, one in four ciga-rette packs are sold illegally, and theRomanian state doesn’t receive any

taxes for this,” said Andrei Vasiles-cu, the firm’s corporate affairs di-rector for Romania and Bulgaria.

Philip Morris has commented

that its employees are not the onlyones affected by this situation.Black market cigarettes have causeda fall in sales and the loss of jobs fordistribution companies and retailersas well, said Vasilescu. “Consumersend up buying cigarettes which inmany cases are of dubious quality.On a large scale, this translates intomajor losses to the state budget,”added the director.

The 450 employees will be paid75 percent of their salaries duringthe temporary shutdown. TheOtopeni factory was opened in 2001following EUR 100 million of in-vestments. Philip Morris competeswith JT International and BritishAmerican Tobacco on the local cig-arette market.

Corina Saceanu

GarantiBank doubles itsassets and posts 50percent growth in loans

The International Monetary Fund(IMF), which has been reviewing itsstand-by agreement with Romania inthe last two weeks, will recommendits board in Washington release thenext two installments of the bailoutloan. “We are optimistic that in Feb-ruary the IMF board will acknowl-edge the efforts made by Romania,”said Jeffrey Franks, the head of thestand-by evaluation mission. The twoinstallments have a cumulated valueof EUR 2.3 billion.

A new IMF mission will return inRomania at the end of April andFranks does not expect the fund willneed to direct future loan installmentsto the state budget. The next reviewmission will check whether the fiscalresponsibility law has been enforced,fiscal reform and the quarterly budg-et deficit targets. By then, the generaldirector of the IMF, DominiqueStrauss-Khan, will have visited Ro-mania as part of a European tour. Hisvisit is scheduled for March.

The IMF expects Romania to beable to repay its loan. “Romania hasalways paid. We haven’t had anyproblems so far and I don’t think wewill have in the future,” said Franks.

So far, the Romanian authorities

have agreed to adopt the unitary pen-sion law in June this year, while thefiscal responsibility law will be en-forced in March.

“The pension law needs to adopt-ed in the first half of this year. Thepension system is unbalanced at thismoment, which could endanger thereceipt of money for pensioners in thefuture. In the coming months, thepension law will be sent to Parlia-ment,” said Franks.

The unemployment rate in Roma-nia could reach 1 million by mid-year, Franks also said. The stateshould reduce its wage bill, whichcould be done by axing 10 percent ofstate employees or by reducing theirsalaries, he added. Romania currentlyhas 700,000 unemployed.

The country signed a EUR 12.95billion loan agreement with the IMF.It has already received the first twoloan installments, totaling someEUR 6.6 billion. The first install-ment, EUR 4.8 billion, was used toboost Central Bank (BNR) reserves.From the second payment, half wentto the BNR’s reserves and the otherhalf to the state’s treasury account atthe bank.

Corina Saceanu

IMF to release new money forRomania, next review in April

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No butts: 450 employees will enter technical un-employment

Philip Morris stubs out activity at Otopenifactory as cigarette sales go up in smoke

BRIEFSROMANIA RANKED 16THBEST DESTINATION FOR FDIé Romania came 16th in a classi-fication of the 25 most attractivedestinations for foreign invest-ments globally, ahead of theCzech Republic and Russia, in astudy by consultancy firm A.T.Kearney which focuses on theperception of managers headingthe largest companies all over theworld. China came top, followedby the United States and India.A.T. Kearney used for compari-son a study from 2007 in whichRomania did not feature.

FDI IN ROMANIA TOREBOUND TO USD 8 BLNTHIS YEARé Foreign direct investments (FDI)in Romania fell by half in 2009from USD 13 billion to USD 6 bil-lion. However, in 2010, FDI willincrease to USD 8 billion and in2011 to USD 11 billion, accord-ing to an investigation by theEconomist Corporate Network,part of The Economist Group. Thefindings also foresee a 1 percentrise in GDP in Romania, after adecline of 7.4 percent last year.However, economic growth in theeuro zone will remain fragile anddemand on Romania’s mainexport markets will still be stifled.

ROMCONSTRUCT PLOIESTICALLS FOR IMPACT’SINSOLVENCY é Romconstruct Ploiesti hasrequested the insolvency of ImpactDeveloper & Contractor for adebt in excess of EUR 146,000.However, the real estate develop-er says no such debt exists.Moreover, Impact said in an offi-cial statement sent to theBucharest Stock Exchange it hadexecution titles against the othercompany that amount to nearlyEUR 244,000. “In 2007, a con-tract was signed between Impactand Romconstruct Ploiesti, andImpact complied with all thefinancial obligations to the con-tractual partner,” states the docu-ment. The company dismissed therequest for insolvency as a black-mail attempt.

N E W S


Centrul Medical Unirea (CMU)will welcome a new investment fundamong its shareholders, in a deal esti-mated by the company at several tensof millions of euros. CMU will alsoinvest EUR 10 million in a greenfieldsurgery hospital in Bucharest, out of atotal EUR 20 million budget. The hos-pital will be opened mid-2011.

“We continue to negotiate with lo-cal operators for possible acquisitions

in bigger Romanian cities. As we havedone before, we will finance the ex-pansion from our own funds and fromloans, plus funds given by our in-vestors,” said Sergiu Negut, deputygeneral manager of CMU. The firmhas yet to announce the name of theinvestor which will buy into the com-pany.

The medical group posted aturnover of EUR 16.4 million lastyear, up 72 percent on the previousyear, it has announced. The biggest in-vestment of 2009 was the EUR 5.5million cash injection into the ReginaMaria maternity hospital, which wasopened in December 2008. The hospi-tal’s activities contributed EUR 2.2million last year to CMU’s sales. Theprivate healthcare operator is openingnew medical centers in Bucharest andin Constanta, Cluj-Napoca andPloiesti. It has acquired a stake in lo-cal operator CIM Bacau, in a EUR 1million investment. CMU also openeda stem cell bank.

Corina Saceanu

CMU to add new shareholder,plans EUR 10 mln surgery hospital

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Sergiu Negut, deputy general manager of CMU

Premium Aerotec, part of the Euro-pean Aeronautic Defense and Spacecompany (EADS), is close to signing aEUR 100 million contract with the Ro-manian authorities. The money will beinvested in an Airbus aircraft compo-nents factory, on the IAR Ghimbav plat-form in Brasov.

According to Brasov mayor GeorgeScripcaru, the Premium Aerotec invest-ment will be a greenfield one, which will

fall under the offset law and benefit fromstate aid of approximately EUR 40 mil-lion. The offset law governs strategiccontracts and obliges a seller of strategicgoods to reinvest 80 percent of the sumsobtained from the deal in Romania.

“We will probably announce that thecontract has been signed in early Febru-ary,” said Claudiu Stafie, state secretaryat the Ministry of Economy.

Dana Ciuraru

STOC

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The components factory will be built on the IAR Ghimbav platform in Brasov

EADS company to invest EUR 100million in local components factory

N E W S


The Romanian National Securi-ties Commission (CNVM) has re-cently approved the mandatory pub-lic takeover offer of RON 0.43 forRompetrol Well Services Ploiestishare, launched by the RompetrolGroup Netherlands, controlled byKazakh oil company KazMu-naiGaz.

The CNVM also decided to re-ject the mandatory public offer ofRompetrol Rafinare Constanta, ini-tiated by The Rompetrol GroupNetherlands. The net asset account-ing value for the last audited finan-cial statements at the end of 2008,submitted to the CNVM beforesending the tender documents, wasnot taken into account in determin-

ing the price offered, which is low-er. The law stipulates that the mini-

mum price to be offered in themandatory public takeover offer ofRompetrol Rafinare Constanta is atleast equal to the net asset account-ing value of the company, a docu-ment which must be submitted tothe CNVM. However, the CNVMdecided to extend the period of sus-pension from trading on theBucharest Stock Exchange of sharesissued by Rompetrol Rafinare Con-stanta, until the date of deposit bythe Rompetrol Group Netherlands.

Rompetrol Well Services sharesincreased by 5 percent on theBucharest Stock Exchange, close tothe Rompetrol Group Netherlandsoffer.

Dana Ciuraru

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The offer for Rompetrol Rafinare was rejected

The Romanian Competition Council(CC) has approved the deal under whichpetrochemicals producer Oltchim Ram-nicu-Valcea will take over the petro-chemical activity previously owned byoil and gas producer Petrom. The assetsacquired are located on the industrialplatform Arpechim, where Petrom willcontinue to carry out oil refining activi-ties.

“The council has examined whetherthis move is compatible with a normalcompetitive environment and concludedthat it does not result in significant re-striction, prevention or distortion ofcompetition,” announced officials fromthe Competition Council.

Since November 2008, productionactivity in sites purchased by Oltchimhas been halted and plants were tem-

porarily closed up. Production activitywill be resumed after the handover fromPetrom. “This merger represents a verti-cal integration of economic activity in

the petrochemical sector. Moreover,Arpechim’s petrochemical activity wasdesigned from the beginning to providean integrated system to combine workwith Oltchim,” said the CC. The approx-imately 560 Arpechim employees en-gaged in petrochemical activity will betransferred to Oltchim.

Currently, the firm is working at lowcapacity, as its activity depends largelyon Arpechim’s activity. Since Novem-ber 2008, Petrom has stopped deliveriesof ethylene and propylene fromArpechim to Oltchim.

To help the firm, in July 2009 thegovernment approved a mechanism forthe taking out of a loan of EUR 339.2million, which will be up to 80 percentguaranteed by the state.

Dana Ciuraru

Car market fell by 50 percent last year, APIA says

Several production sites have been closed

BRIEFSINTEREST RATE FORSAVINGS IN RON TO FALLTO 7-8 PERCENTé Interest rates for deposits in thelocal currency will decrease bythe end of the year by 1 to1.5percent, to 7-8 percent. Since thebeginning of the year, rates havesunk from 10-11 percent to 8-9percent, according to SorinMititelu, executive manager of theDirection for BusinessDevelopment and Retail Productsin the Romanian CommercialBank (BCR). He expects a 1 to1.5 percent decrease by the endof the year.

CAVALIERE STORES ENTERSINSOLVENCY é The Cavaliere stores, controlledby the Romanian DistributionGroup, entered insolvency at theend of last year, with debts ofapproximately EUR 6 million. Thecompany operates 20 shops andposted a yearly turnover of EUR8.5 million, having 160 employ-ees. Its shareholders are Monicaand Nicolae Toader Caluda andDeli Priscoli Pirolamo. A restruc-turing was attempted last year byreducing the number of employ-ees. Six stores were closed inGalati, Ploiesti and Brasov.

ROMANIANS PERKED UPAT THE END OF LAST YEAR,STILL GLOOMY, GFKé Approximately 57 percent ofRomanians believed in Decemberthat their family’s financial situa-tion was worse than 12 monthsbefore, according to a study byGfK Romania. This however isbetter than the 61 percent whofelt that way in September-November. “Usually peoplebecome more optimistic in the lastmonth of the year because theyget in the holiday spirit and somereceive bonuses at the end of theyear. An exception to this rulewas 2008, when the effects of thefinancial crisis were starting to befelt here and Romanians’ worrieswere translated into a negativeperception of their situation,” saidOtilia Man, senior researcher inGfK Romania.

The Romanian AutomotiveManufacturers and Importers Asso-ciation (APIA) has dubbed last yeara disaster for the Romanian car mar-ket, with falls of 50 percent. More-over, APIA data reveals that 10 per-cent of the 400 dealers who sell newcars around the country declarebankruptcies and loss-incurringsales, as these companies wereforced to slash prices to shift stock,said Brent Valmar, vice-president ofAPIA.

And the local car market couldfare even worse this year if meas-

ures to support the sector are nottaken, warned Ernest Popovici,APIA’s GM.

These measures, called for byindustry officials, include the re-sumption of the car replacementprogram from February 15 andclunker program from February 15,and the revival of lending.

The difficulty in obtaining fi-nancing and the public’s lack ofmoney to buy new cars are the mainfactors that sent the local car markettumbling back to the level lastrecorded in 2004.

“The pressure put on stocks has led many dealers to sell at a loss,but stocks have dropped (...) We estimate that from now on carswill have reasonable prices whichwill allow dealers to continue working in good condition,” saidValmar.

APIA estimates that this year themarket will be around last year’slevel, with sales reaching 115,000new cars and about 15,000 commer-cial vehicles.

Dana Ciuraru

CNVM gives green light to Rompetrol Group’s offerfor Rompetrol Well Services

Competition Council OKs Oltchim’s acquisition ofpetrochemicals from Arpechim

N E W S


United Romanian BreweriesBereprod posted a market share of9.5 percent in 2009, which was a avolume increase of 15 percent on2008 on the beer segment. Its mar-ket share by value last year was 11.1percent. The company posted asimilar turnover last year as in 2008,while its sales volumes also re-

mained close to the same level asthe year before on the beer segment.

“We intend to allocate aboutEUR 6 million to developing andmodernizing the bottling lines, lo-gistics and supplementary materials,in order to continue to offer premi-um products to our Romanian con-sumers,” said Shachar Shaine, pres-ident at URBB.

The brewer’s Granini brandposted an increase in volume of 50percent in 2009 on 2008, with in-vestments in the fruit drink goinginto the development of distribu-tion, the bottling system and thecommunication campaign “Fruitslove Granini” (Fructele iubescGranini), rolled out from June-Sep-tember. URBB estimates an 8 per-cent growth in volume for its beerdivision in 2010, and 25 percent forsoft drinks. Representatives of thebrewer said that they expected anincrease of 20 percent on theturnover posted in 2009.

Anda Dragan

URBB toasts 15 percent marketshare increase on beer segment

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The brewer will invest in new bottling lines TotalSoft posted a turnover of near-ly EUR 20 million at the end of 2009.Its EBITDA, which rose 40 percentfrom the previous year, was EUR 5 mil-lion.

Some 70 percent of the revenuescome from local sales while the re-maining 30 percent represent exports.The software firm registered a 32 per-cent increase in revenues from Charis-ma ERP, adding 45 new clients.

At the opposite pole was the Pri-mavera project management systemwhich declined substantially due to thecollapse of the construction market andinfrastructure projects.

“Given that large software compa-nies posted falls of as much as 40 per-cent, I believe we have ended a difficultyear well,” said Liviu Dragan, generalmanager of TotalSoft.

In 2010, TotalSoft aims to achieve aconsolidated sales growth of approxi-mately 20 percent, to EUR 24 million,and an EBITDA of EUR 6 million. Thecompany will officially announce theopening of its office in Bulgaria in thefirst quarter and a Greek subsidiary atthe end of the year.

On the medium term, it is preparingthe launch of the Charisma ERP on theweb (in 2011) and increasing revenuesfrom sales on the external market to 50percent.

Over the coming years, TotalSoftplans to open offices in Germany, Eng-land, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Rus-sia and Poland.

Otilia Haraga

TotalSoft posts EUR 20 mln turnoverfor 2009, hopes for increase this year

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Liviu Dragan, general manager of TotalSoft

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BRIEFSROMANIAN ECONOMY TOGROW 5-6 PERCENT IN2012é The Romanian economy has agrowth potential of 5-6 percentannually, a level that it will reachin 2012, according to MihaiTanasescu, Romania’s representa-tive at the International MonetaryFund (IMF), who estimates for thisyear a GDP growth of between1.3 and percent. “I am optimisticbut it depends on us how werecover what we have lost overthe last year and how quickly wemanage to reach the 5-6 percentpotential economic growth thatRomania has,” said Tanasescu. “Iestimate for this year an econom-ic growth of 1.3 to 1.5 percent, aspeeding up in 2011, while in2012 we will reach the potentialof 5-6 percent that Romania has.”

BANCA TRANSILVANIARECEIVES EUR 15 MLN FORPRIMA CASAé Banca Transilvania hasreceived another EUR 15 millionfor the First House program(Prima Casa). The sum is destinedfor those who have signed or willsign contracts for the acquisitionof a house by February 15. Theloans are granted for the acquisi-tion of homes that are finished orunder construction, as well asthose that have yet to be built.The bank’s initial funds for theprogram amounted to EUR 17million. Last October, they wereboosted by EUR 10 million. Thiswas the second supplement thatBanca Transilvania had receivedfrom the Fund for Loan Warrantyfor SMEs.

INTERCAPITAL INVESTTRANSACTIONS REACH EUR105 MLN IN 2009é The total value of IntercapitalInvest transactions with sharesand fund units amounted toapproximately EUR 105 millioncompared to EUR 153 millionregistered in 2008. In the lastquarter of 2009, transactions onthe Bucharest Stock Exchangewith shares and fund unitsreached approximately EUR 32.6million, a growth of 168 percentcompared to the value posted inQ4, the previous year.

Blue Air posted a 55 percent in-crease in its number of its passen-gers, to over 1.7 million in 2009,with a turnover of EUR 140 million.The airline estimates a rise of 40percent in turnover in 2010 and willboost its number of employees by atleast 30 percent.

“2009 was a difficult year for thewhole airline industry. Adaptationto the market conditions was a sine

qua non condition while last yearwe focused on partnerships that as-sured us the growth of our marketshare,” said Adrian Ionascu, generalmanager of Blue Air. According tohim, in 2010 the airline will focuson the consolidation of externalconnections. “It is also possible forus to open a fourth operations basein Europe,” added Ionascu.

Anda Dragan

Blue Air flies over 1.7 mln passengers,gets EUR 140 mln turnover in 2009

PC market takes anosedive in 2009

Romtelecom has recently signedthe acquisition of New Com Teleco-municatii, a company based in Cluj.The value of the deal and number ofsubscribers that the national opera-tor gained through the acquisitionwere not made public. However, anindependent report carried out inOctober last year evaluated NewCom’s networks at 26,000 clientsand USD 9 million.

The transaction was madethrough NextGen Communications,a TV cable, telephony and internetprovider that is fully owned byRomtelecom. In March 2009, NewCom sold a portfolio of 30,000 cus-tomers to NextGen Communica-tions. Several months later, it soldanother 30,000 clients toRCS&RDS in a transaction that wasestimated at that time to be worthEUR 5 million.

New Com Telecomunicatii wasfounded in 2007 in Cluj. The share-holders of the company were invest-ment firm Capital Partners and twoother investment funds.

Romtelecom is competing on

this market with UPC and RCS &RDS, which has reached 1.1 millioncustomers for landline internet serv-ices, following an aggressive acqui-sition policy of expanding its cus-tomer base. Additionally, the con-text is favorable to larger, liquidity-rich players as many small compa-nies no longer have the necessary

cash flow to sustain their operationsand are forced to sell up.

According to Romtelecom rep-resentatives, the company has a 30percent market share on both broad-band and satellite television. Thefirm’s business strategy is to expandaccess to broadband internet servic-es based on technologies xDSL,CDMA and FTTH, FTTB, includ-ing by developing the optic fibernetwork, according to its represen-tatives. It plans to continue to stim-ulate internet use by including hard-ware equipment, such as PC, lap-tops, multifunctional equipment, inthe package with broadband con-nections. It also aims to reduce in-ternet and TV prices by promoting3P services, as well as regional of-fers.

Romtelecom launched IPTVservices in December 2009 in tencities in Romania. At the moment,four HD channels are availablethrough the IPTV platform DolceInteractiv: Sport.ro HD, TVR HD,Pro TV HD and HBO HD.

Otilia Haraga

Romtelecom reaches full ownership of New Com

AG

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Yorgos Ioannidis, CEO of Romtelecom

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Blue Air could open its fourth operations base in Europe this year

Computer sales in Romaniaposted a decrease of over 55 percentin volume last year, from 1.08 mil-lion units in 2008 to 500,000, ac-cording to preliminary data fromconsultancy company InternationalData Corporation (IDC). The sector,which includes PCs, notebooks andservers, was affected by the reces-sion which led to a fall in demandfrom individual consumers andSMEs. Additionally, many projectsin the public and private sector weredelayed.

However, the last quarter of2009 saw a growth in the PC marketin Romania, compared to previousperiods, reaching a volume of200,000 units. In the first ninemonths, the local computer marketreached 293,500 units.

In 2008, the PC market grew by15 percent in volume, to 1.08 mil-lion units, and by 13 percent in val-ue to more than USD 940 million,according to IDC.

Otilia Haraga

C A L E N D A R / W H O ’ S N E W S


EVENTS, BUSINESS AND POLITICAL AGENDAFEBRUARY 2

é 11:00 The Ministry of Economy, Trade and the Business Environment

organizes a press conference at Capital Plaza Hotel. By invitation only.

é 14:00 The US Embassy in Romania organizes a debate on the printed

vs. online media with media consultant Mario Garcia at the American

Cultural Center.

FEBRUARY 9

é Business Review organizes the 8th edition of Tax, Law & Lobby – the

top event addressing your legal and financial concerns, during this time

of political and economical instability.

FEBRUARY 10

é 10:00 Cegedim organizes press conference on the evolution of the Ro-

manian pharmaceutical market, at the company’s headquarters.

WHO’S NEWSPAUL MICHES is the new executive direc-

tor of Scop Comput-ers. He is taking overfrom Horia Chitu whohas held the positionfor the last five yearsand who will continue

as executive director of Docentris, oneof the group’s divisions. Miches hastwelve years of experience workingfor Microsoft, four of which he hasspent with Microsoft Central and East-ern Europe. More recently he hasworked for the Microsoft divisions inLondon and Munich, where he man-aged the Microsoft Unlimited Poten-tial program until last year.

EDWIN DEURLOO has been assigned opera-tions director of Metro Cash & CarryRomania starting this month. He be-gan his career with the firm in 1996 inthe Netherlands, as a managementtrainee. In 2002 Deurloo became storemanager of Metro Cash & Carry Den-mark, and later regional manager ofthe firm’s Russian operations. In 2007he was appointed project manager ofMetro Cash & Carry International, be-fore taking over his current position in2008, as head of business practices op-erations with the company.

PHILIPPE H. DRIVON, 56, has been appoint-ed managing directorof Accor HospitalityRomania. In this newposition he will be re-sponsible for all theAccor hotels in Ro-

mania, Pullman, Novotel and Ibis andalso for the opening of new hotels inthe country. Drivon has 37 years of ex-perience in the hotel industry, 32 ofwhich he has spent working for theAccor Group. For the last four yearshe has been general manager of Novo-tel Bucharest City Centre.

RADU VASILE is the new art director of thePastel Graphics divi-sion of the PastelGroup. He holds de-gree in French fromthe University ofMetz and he has

worked for seven years in Luxem-bourg. At first he worked as a journal-ist for Le Jeudi and the LuxemburgerWort, and later as a desktop publisherand a 2D and 3D graphic designer for

Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etatde Luxembourg and on other freelanceprojects.

DIANA BUCUROIU has joined Pastel Groupas PR manager. Shepreviously worked asa PR consultant forHeadline where shemanaged the agency’simage and also the ac-

counts of clients such as Symantec,Microsoft Hardware, Gigabyte andPro Sys. Bucuroiu is a graduate of theFaculty of Journalism and Communi-cation Sciences of Bucharest.

CRISTINA MIHALACHE has also joined PastelGroup as senior proj-ect manager. She hasseven years’ experi-ence in project man-agement. Mihalachepreviously worked for

Skepsis Advertising. She also held theposition of marketing & PR coordina-tor of InterContinental Bucharest Hoteland event manager at Extreme Events.Mihalache is a graduate of the Facultyof Journalism and CommunicationSciences of Bucharest.

MIRIANA MATEI is the new HR director ofSchneider ElectricRomania. She has twoyears of experience inHR after having previ-ously held a similarposition at Genpact

Romania. She previously worked forAims Human Capital for five years, atfirst as a researcher and later as an HRconsultant.

MIHAI PETRE, 30, has joined the customsand excise consultan-cy team of DeloitteRomania as customsand excise manager.He has nine years ofexperience in advising

local and multinational companies ondirect, indirect and individual tax is-sues. His career began at Arthur An-dersen and continued at KPMG. He graduated from the West Universi-ty of Timisoara and is a member of theRomanian Chamber of Tax Consult-ants and of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in theUK.

Business Review welcomes information for Who’s News from readers.Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. Feel free to contact us at [email protected]

More than half of Romaniansbemoan their lot in life, study shows

Less than half of Romanians, 47percent are satisfied with their life atthe moment, far below the Europeanaverage of 78 percent, according tothe survey Eurobarometer 72, whichcanvasses public opinion in the Eu-ropean Union. The figure is the sameas it was in June last year. Romaniahas similarly low levels of content-ment to other South-Eastern EUstates, namely Bulgaria, with 38 per-cent, Hungary, some 42 percent,Greece, with 58 percent and Croatia,63 percent.

Local women seem to have theworst of it. In Romania, 50 percentof men and 44 percent of women arehappy with the life they lead while atEuropean level there is a negligibledifference between the genders, with78 percent of men and 77 percent ofwomen professing to be content.

There is also a significant gener-ation gap across Europe. Young peo-ple are much more satisfied withtheir condition than elderly peopleboth in Romania and the EU. Here,53 percent of people under 40 enjoytheir life compared to only 42 per-cent of those above 40. In the Euro-pean Union, the difference is 81 per-cent to 76 percent.

Moreover, both in Romania andin the EU, better educated people de-clare themselves more satisfied withtheir lives. In Romania 57 percent ofthe people who continued their stud-ies after the age of 20 say they arehappy. By contrast, in the EuropeanUnion, 86 percent of people whowent on to higher education are sat-isfied with their lot.

Regarding expectations for thenext year, 22 percent of Romaniansthink they will live better, 29 percentsay they will live worse, 43 percentbelieve things will stay the same and6 percent do not know. The level ofpessimism in Romania is almostdouble than in the European Union,where it is15 percent. As for the costof living in Romania, 88 percent ofrespondents believe the situationhere is less favorable than in otherEU countries. Moreover, 87 percentof Romanians believe the quality oflife in their country is below the Eu-ropean average. The data for the sur-vey was collected from the end ofOctober 2009 until November 11,2009 on a sample of 1,021 respon-dents.

Otilia Haraga

M O N E Y


After many years of fierce

competition between lenders to gain

new market share and extend their

coverage nationwide, a new era on

the banking scene is beginning: the

fight is now taking place in the

virtual world. BCR is the first bank

to have entered Virtual Bucharest,

by opening a branch in Second Life.

Anda Dragan

Running a virtual real estate de-velopment company. Going shop-ping in huge malls full of famousbrands that will set you back manyLinden dollars.

Making transactions. Entertain-ing yourself. In short: you live aSecond Life (SL). While, tradition-ally, lenders are most often linkedwith tangible concepts such aslaunching new products and servic-es, mergers & acquisitions, financialresults and credit lines from international financial institu-tions, things are beginning tochange.

Banca Comerciala Romana(BCR) took its first step into SecondLife. It was the first bank in Roma-nia to have opened a virtual branchon the SL platform. Its financial ed-

ucational program, Money School(Scoala de bani), will also have a 3Dequivalent in the virtual world.

Located in the center of PiataRevolutiei in Virtual Bucharest, theBCR branch enjoys a daily traffic ofover 250 unique users inside, aswell as exposure to more than 800residents who socialize in the virtu-al city. Moreover, BCR will also un-dergo a branding process in VirtualBucharest in 2010 and will organizeevents and contests in the online Pi-ata Revolutiei.

So a bank is already up and run-ning in the virtual realm. “Launch-ing a branch in Second Life and in-tegrating the financial educationprogram Money School is part ofour strategy to interact with peopleat levels other than the traditionalones,” says Daniel Pana, executivedirector of the marketing division atBCR.

“The fact that Second Life has itown economy and currency allowsus to test around the idea of moneythrough the implementation of ad-vergames and contests dedicated tothe virtual community. But it also

permits us to offer them tangibleservices such as cards or internetbanking”, he says.

But how has this move been per-ceived on the market? According toCristian Manafu, consultant atStrategist.ro, such an initiative iswelcomed, because it showscourage and openness to newthings.

“BCR has identified a new audi-ence and decided to interact muchmore with it through one of the mostinteresting communication channels– Second Life. The challenge forBCR is to create a coherent strategyfor action in Second Life, and so beable to fully benefit from the advan-tages offered by this platform,” saysManafu.

According to Aura Tatu, the cre-ator of Virtual Bucharest, thelender’s entering the virtual envi-ronment is as appropriate as its pres-ence on the internet in general. Be-sides, BCR is neither the only bankactive online nor the first at interna-tional level that is promoting itselfin a 3D virtual space. “Second Lifeis wrongly perceived as a game, be-

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BCR was the first Romanian bank to have opened a branch in the already popular Second Life

Local lenders search for newbusiness in the virtual world

cause it looks like a video game. Butit lacks the essential features ofgames – it has no missions to ac-complish, levels or goals to achieve.Besides, its whole content is built by its users and it has its owneconomy that really works,” saysTatu.

She adds that Second Life isnow the most advanced 3D virtualplatform: “It is a preview of the in-ternet of the future.” According toher, there is already a virtual Ro-manian community in VirtualBucharest that numbers 9,000 loyalusers and has a daily traffic of about800-1,000 unique ones.

“It is more efficient for a brandto come where the community gath-ers and where there is safety andregulators for public chat,” saysTatu. She adds that the average timespent in Second Life is about threehours per user daily, compared withten minutes spent by a reader on ablog. This means that this environ-ment can offer huge opportunities.“The young generation is hooked upand they represent the target that many brands want, so it is logi-cal to be where they are. Besides, the most open approachesto such an environment have comefrom people who work in banks and see the potential that SecondLife offers for marketing,” saysTatu.

LENDERS EMBRACE VIRTUALREALITY

The virtual space is becomingmore and more of a target for bank-ing players and 2010 seems to be itsyear.

It is all about the huge prospectsand increased effectiveness of thisenvironment.

“I think that lenders will focusthis year on the online space due toits opportunities for communicationand interaction. Furthermore, bothcosts and resources are lower thanin other communication environ-ments, and efficiency is now a keyelement in development strategies,”

M O N E Y


says Manafu. In his opinion, the virtual envi-

ronment can bring lenders closer totheir customers and can also makefor more direct communication withthem. It is not a traditional approachfor banks but it is one that couldbring significant advantages. Be-sides, along with mobile phone andgadget brands, lenders were amongthe first players to roll out internetcampaigns. “There are some brandsthat embrace technology solutions

before others, and banks are amongthem. They struck earlier, and whensuch 3D environments are main-stream they will have a significantadvantage over the competition,”says Tatu.

WHY SECOND LIFE IS FIRSTCHOICE

Visibility, courage, innovativespirit, customer care and appeal ininteracting with clients are some ofthe advantages that Second Life is

said to offer to financial players. It also allows clients to get into

contact with financial institutionmore easily and proves the exis-tence of some skills that might notbe visible in the usual communica-tion process.

Entering Second Life also bringshuge image capital. The brand isperceived as being “human,” intouch with the public’s problemsand opinions.

While the virtual environment isbecoming more important, it cannotbe said that the competition will bemoved completely to the virtualplane.

But lenders’ communicationperspectives will definitely bechanged, once they realize how thevirtual environment can become an-other tool for getting in touch withconsumers.

“The competition will be like itwas the offline one some years agowhen banks fought for nationwidecoverage. In the near future we willsee a battle for consumers who havebecome more sophisticated,” saysManafu.

Tatu thinks that the competitionwill be split between the tangibleand virtual space, but believes that

for some products the decision tobuy will be made exclusively on-line.

But a bank’s presence in SecondLife could be a competitive advantage as long as it is well struc-tured.

Communication needs to beadapted to the virtual space and tousers’ profile, and it has to speaktheir language.

“When you are the biggest it isgood to be ‘the most’ in other direc-tions, too. Here it is about innova-tion and adaptation to the constantchanges,” says Manafu.

There is no doubt that presencein Second Life is an image strategy,but its results are not visible imme-diately.

“Many of our users are veryyoung – they are practically tomor-row’s consumers. For them, the decision to sign up with a specificbank is greatly influenced by theway it communicates with them, ina very familiar space. We noticedthat many of users are already BCR customers and they have agood opinion in general of thelender’s tangible services,” con-cludes Tatu.

[email protected]

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Second Life, which has its own economy, is still perceived as a game in Romania

P O W E R


The two national energy companies

are now taking shape – the project

finally received government

approval at the end of last week.

Specialists say this is just a short-

term solution, as the formula

adopted merely channels money

from the profitable energy

companies to the less efficient ones.

Dana Ciuraru

The reorganization of the Roman-ian energy sector by forming two na-tional energy companies is now final-ized as the government has signed theproject that OKs the forming of thetwo energy champions.

After the project passed throughthe Supreme Council of National De-fense (CSAT) last week, it was await-ing only the final approval of the gov-ernment, which came late on Fridaylast week.

According to the draft of the finalproject, the first national company, tobe called Electra, will include the en-ergy complexes Turceni, Rovinari andCraiova, the nuclear energy producerNuclearelectrica, the Hidroelectricabranches of Ramnicu Valcea, Sibiuand Targu Jiu, the Hidroserv branchand the National Company of LigniteOltenia.

The second national company,Hidroenergetica, will be establishedby merging Electrocentrale Deva andElectrocentrale Bucharest, TermoservParoseni and the Paroseni branch ofTermoelectrica, the Hidroelectricasubsidiaries in Bistrita, Buzau, Cluj,Curtea de Arges, Hateg, Portile de Fi-er, Oradea, Sebes and Slatina and partof the National Hard Coal Company.After the splitting and mergingprocesses, Hidroelectrica will cease to

exist.The new entities will be recorded

in the Trade Register after approval isobtained for the merger decision. Theshare capital of the newly establishedcompanies will be formed by takingover assets and liabilities of the sub-sidiaries and branches, set out on thebalance sheet at December 31, 2009,which will be updated. The assets de-termined to be public property will berun without being included in the equi-ty.

All the analysis and studies on thistopic show that the best way toachieve these goals requires one of thecompanies to produce lignite basedpower, using part of the potential hy-dro and nuclear fuel and the other todo so based on coal and using otherparts of hydro potential. This solutionallows the two companies to be closeboth in terms of costs per MW/h pro-duced and in terms of market share,writes the project draft.

NEW FIRMS TAKE OVER DEBTTurning to the operational mecha-

nism, the project draft says trade be-

tween the two companies will be con-ducted only on a contractual basis,while the Ministry of the Economywill be required to verify compliancewith monthly disbursements.

Also, the restructuring programsapproved by the companies will con-tinue to be valid. The Property Fundshares from the reorganized compa-nies and their subsidiaries will main-tain the equivalent value in the start-ups.

The two national energy compa-nies, which will become operationalby mid-year, will be forced to assumeall the obligations of the companiestaken over, including internal and ex-ternal loans guaranteed by the state.They will also need to put up certainunits as collateral for the repayment ofcredit.

In order to guarantee the repay-ment of loans secured by the state,mortgages on all the immovable prop-erties of newly established companieswill be set up along with any other se-curity deemed necessary to cover thesums due the Ministry of Finance andFinancial Institutions bank lending,

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The two national energy companies, Electra and Hidroenergetica, will become operational mid-year

State energy conglomerates cross finish linereads the document.

The new companies are alsoobliged to provide financial sourcesfor environmental investments fromEuropean funds and other resources.Initial draft legislation establishing thetwo national companies, developedlast year by the Ministry of Economy,did not include these measures.

Under the project draft, the twocompanies will assume all the rightsand obligations arising from their rela-tions with third parties including on-going litigation. Moreover, the pairwill take over the offset obligationsand related outstanding debts resultingfrom internal and external loans guar-anteed by the state or taken out direct-ly by the state.

COMMENTATORS CAST DOUBTThe only effect on the energy sec-

tor, say commentators, is that it willsolve some of the state’s financialproblems. The money will go fromprofitable companies to loss-makingones, but this is a short-term effect.Experts argue that in the long term thisapproach will not lead to more effi-cient companies. At the same time, it isunlikely that the two energy compa-nies, Electra and Hidroenergetica, willattract investment if they do not haveratings.

“We will still see loans and stateguarantees for commercial companiesrather than see them in health and ed-ucation. State companies make littleprofit and cannot make investments.We will see investors avoiding Roma-nia because they go where there arenot threatened by dominant and dis-cretionary state energy producers,”said Jean Constantinescu, president ofthe Romanian National Institute forEnergy Development (IRE). In hisopinion, one of the objectives pursuedby the reorganization is simply to pri-vatize the hydro energy producer.

The creation of two big energycompanies has split opinion. Both spe-cialists and representatives of state in-stitutions believe that the mammothcompanies in the energy sector mightlead to the creation of dominant mar-ket positions which could result inprice rises. As a result of these fears,the Competition Council has alreadybegun an investigation to determinethe effects of the government’s deci-sion to establish two national energycompanies on the competitive envi-ronment of the energy market.

[email protected]

L I N K S


As the telecom market edges evercloser towards maturity, operatorsare predicted to pursue theexpansion of fixed and mobile data,increased internet speeds and digitaltelevision networks. Many will alsotransfer their networks to IP.Meanwhile, ANCOM is in the processof clearing frequency wavelengths toallow companies to provide 3G,WIMAX and 4G- LTE services.

Otilia Haraga

Data from the National Authority forManagement and Regulation in Com-munications of Romania (ANCOM)points to a market contraction of around20 percent in 2009 compared to its valuein 2008, approaching EUR 4 billion, ac-cording to Catalin Marinescu, presidentof ANCOM. Two years ago, the valuewas approximately EUR 5 billion, up 10percent from EUR 4.61 billion in 2007.

ANCOM foresees a return to growthin 2010, since even in 2009 certain seg-ments underwent an upswing. More-over, Marinescu says the industry madethe strategic changes last year that willensure it gets back on track this year. Inthe first half of 2009, broadband connec-tions at active mobile points increasedby 59 percent, reaching 2.4 million onJune 30, 2009, compared to 1.5 millionat the end of 2008.

Given the 100 percent or higher rateof mobile internet adoption over the lasttwo years, the entry of new operators aswell as the appearance of package of-fers, IDC expects the number of mobileinternet clients to hike by 60-70 percentin 2010.

“Operators will probably opt for theexpansion of fixed and mobile data andwill look to high-speed internet. Invest-ments will also go into the migration ofnetworks towards IP. Some operatorswill budget investments in digital televi-sion networks while others see a sourceof revenues in IT services and will seekto develop special IT departments with-out sub-contracting this type of service

to traditional suppliers,” says MadalinLazarescu, research manager at IDC Ro-mania.

IDC puts the value of the telecommarket at USD 4.95 billion in 2009,while in 2010 it is likely to reach USD5.20 billion. The market research firm’spredictions were made at the currencyexchange level of RON 2.53/USD in2008. The depreciation of the RON thatfollowed after the start of the recessionwill have a negative impact of approxi-mately 21 percent on the 2009 value,with the depreciation in 2009 being sim-ilar to 2008.

Technological changes and the eco-nomic outlook are the key drivers forthis year’s trends in telecommunica-tions, according to the latest telecommu-nications predictions report issued byDeloitte.

“With an accelerated adoption ofmobile broadband, the entire telecom in-dustry, from equipment makers and car-riers to consumers and even regulators,is trying to cope. As a result, the marketis now filtering the best business ap-proaches from both a provider and aclient’s point of view, looking for theright balance between costs and bene-fits,” says Ahmed Hassan, partner withDeloitte Balkans.

This will be a year when Romanian3G developments will be interesting tofollow, says Andrei Ionescu, ERS seniormanager at Deloitte Romania. “To some

extent, we identify the global industrytrends within new local consumptionpatterns: while getting carried away bynew, sophisticated technologies likesmartphones, mobile broadband and so-cial networks, consumers are expressinghigher expectations for service qualityand advantageous paying schemes,” headds. From a service provider’s point ofview, fierce competition and a toughbusiness environment make innovation,flexibility and the ability to reinvent one-self key differentiators on the market,Ionescu goes on.

GETTING ITS PRIORITIESSTRAIGHT

One of ANCOM’s priorities thisyear is to achieve the first stages of tran-sition from terrestrial analog televisionto terrestrial digital television. ANCOMwill also re-organize frequency wave-lengths for last generation mobile com-munication systems. “We have the op-portunity to supply 3G services in thewavelengths where only 2G services,specific to GSM services, are currentlysupplied. Then, we are taking the firststeps in introducing 4G services in Ro-mania. All these measures are meant toencourage the use of broadband internetby Romanian users,” says Marinescu.The regulator has drafted a new strategyto introduce three new wavelengths:broadband wireless access in the fre-quency wavelengths 3.5 GHz, 2.5 GHz

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Operators will opt for expanding fixed and mobile data and look to high-speed internet, says IDC

Telecom market embraces brave new digital worldand 800 MHz. The 3.5 GHz band is al-ready being used for point-to-multipointcommunications while the 2.5 GHzwavelength is still reserved for govern-ment use but will be offered to mobilecommunication suppliers once it iscleared.

“We believe the 3.5 GHz wave-length is the most appropriate for sup-plying WIMAX services, while the 800MHz wavelength can be used for nextgeneration broadband services: 4G-LTE,” says Marinescu. The 800 MHzwavelength, which will be cleared oncethe complete transition to digital televi-sion is made, will be used for mobileservices. “The better propagation of thiswavelength obviously leads to lowercosts both for suppliers and users,” headds. As far as the 2.5 GHz wavelengthis concerned, it will probably be usedboth for WIMAX technology and for4G. “For users, this would translate intoaccess to new services, quicker internetaccess and lower tariffs due to competi-tion on the market,” says the authoritypresident.

A new campaign on the portabilityof numbers will take place in Q2 andQ3, 2010. Between October 2008 andJanuary 2010, just over 200,000 num-bers were transferred to other networks,of which 132,600 were mobile numbers.Some 75 percent of the mobile userswere postpay customers while 25 per-cent were prepay.

Last year, ANCOM started workingon a portal that will allow users to com-pare tariffs, having applied for financingfrom structural funds last October. Theauthority hopes the project will be avail-able to users in 2011.

In the first half of the year, ANCOMwill also start consultations on the calcu-lation of the costs of call-ending servic-es. In the second half of 2010, the con-sultant that will help the authority realizethe model of cost calculation will be se-lected. However, the plan is that thiscomplex project should be completed inthe first half of 2011, said Marinescu.This will lead to fiercer competition andan upsurge in the consumption of callservices as off-net calls will becomecheaper, similar to in-net call prices.“The decrease in inter-connection tariffswill have a rather small impact on oper-ators’ revenues given that the bulk oftraffic for each operator takes placewithin the network. I would estimatethat it could be somewhere around 5 per-cent of the total revenues, depending onthe traffic specifics of each operator,”says Lazarescu.


P R O P E R T Y

Portuguese developer Sonae Sierrahas re-branded its Craiova-based shop-ping mall as Adora Mall and signed aleasing contract with cinema operatorCinema City. The 59,000-sqm GLAshopping mall has already been 60 per-cent leased, with Cinema City occupy-ing 3,000 sqm of the retail surface. Theleasing contract was intermediated byCBRE Eurisko. This is the sixth projectin Romania in which Cinema City willhave a multiplex unit. Sonae Sierra hadpreviously said that it had halted con-struction works on the Craiova projectdue to lack of financing, although theleasing process was in an advancedstage.

“We intend to start constructionworks as soon as possible, but only afterwe have all guarantees related to the pro-ject’s construction timing will we beable to announce them. We are workingon the project’s design, architecture, sus-tainable solutions, leasing, financing and

The dispute between real estate de-veloper Impact and the owners of someof the homes it has developed has esca-lated. Last week, Impact issued a pressrelease alleging that 800 families livingin residential projects built by the devel-oper had not paid their electricity bills.Representatives of owners’ associationsfrom several Impact projects have saidthey are deliberately withholding pay-ment in protest against the high tariffsimposed by Impact, which in this case isacting as energy re-seller.

The firm said last week that 800 ofthe 2,000 families who live in Impact-developed residential projects in

Bucharest have run up utilities debts,with some owing nearly EUR 4,000. Im-pact had suggested the state subsidizeutilities bills for cash-strapped middle-class families. The total debt of theprotesting families is more than EUR200,000. However, the owners say theyare not paying up because Impact wasallegedly charging them for electricity il-legally, as it does not have a license tosupply and distribute electricity.

The owners in the Azur neighbor-hood have filed a complaint with the Eu-ropean Commission, saying that Impacthas broken energy distribution laws.

Corina Saceanu

The US Embassy in Bucharest hasemployed green solutions in developingits new headquarters. The site will cover40,000 sqm north of Bucharest, close tothe Tunari forest. It will include residen-tial units and offices, as well as retailspace. The investment will contribute upto USD 80 million to the Romanianeconomy, according to data from the USEmbassy. The project is being built withsubcontractors, which include Bog’Art,Sommering-Mech, Lafarge and TitanMar. Around 300 people are working on

it, most of whom are Romanian. The new building will be developed

using eco-friendly materials and willdraw on various technologies, such asthose which automatically modify thelevel of lighting depending on the inten-sity of natural light. The embassy is hop-ing to receive a green building certificatefor the new construction. Under US pol-icy, all new public buildings should re-spect energy and environmental designprinciples.

Corina Saceanu

Sonae Sierra re-brands Craiovamall, signs up Cinema City

marketing strategy in order to be able toadvance in all the project’s specifica-tions for the development of Adora Mall.As for the tenants, we are under negoti-ations for the announced 60 percent pre-leased GLA, but as happened with Cin-ema City, we only announce our newtenants once the definitive contracts arefinalized,” said Ingo Nissen, countryrepresentative and development manag-er for Romania.

The shopping mall is said to requirea EUR 140 million investment. SonaeSierra owns 52 shopping centers in sev-en countries. In Romania, the developerhas a shopping city in Ramnicu Valcea,River Plaza Mall, and is also half ownerof Arena Mall shopping center in Bacau.The Portuguese firm was also partneringCaelum Development in developingParklake Plaza project in Bucharest, aproject which has been halted, accordingto the most recent information.

Corina Saceanu

Rompetrol moves into sixfloors in City Gate

Oil and gas company Rompetrol hasleased six floors in the north tower of theCity Gate office building in Bucharest,to where it plans to relocate departmentswhich are currently headquartered in 10different locations. The firm will occupy9,300 sqm in the building, according toCBRE Eurisko, which intermediated the

Owners of Impact homes file complaint withEuropean Commission

The shopping mall has been 60 percent leased

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The office project was developed by GTC

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Raiffeisen renews lease on Charles deGaulle Plaza headquarters

Raiffeisen Bank has signed a leaserenewal for the 8,000 sqm it occupies inBucharest’s Charles de Gaulle Plaza.For the leasing of the site GLL Real Es-tate Partners, the owner of the building,has appointed Jones Lang LaSalle andCBRE Eurisko as joint exclusive agents.

Vodafone and UniCredit TiriacBank, which are also tenants in thebuilding, have also extended their leaseagreements with the landlords.

GLL Real Estate Partners acquiredCharles de Gaulle Plaza from developerAvrig 25 and Austrian investment fundCA Immo in 2006, paying around EUR80 million. The 16-floor block features40,000 sqm of office space.

Corina SaceanuThe bank occupies 8,000 sqm in the building

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lease. The move brings the occupancy ofthe north tower in City Gate to 100 per-cent. “Rompetrol’s relocation to thebuilding, joining Romtelecom, Millen-nium Bank, AutoItalia and Microsoft,confirms the market trend to repositionthe Central Business District (CBD) tothe north of the capital. The fact that2010 has started with such an importanttransaction cannot be but a positive signfor the Bucharest office market,” saidVictor Rachita, account manager withCBRE Eurisko. Rompetrol will move tothe new site in April this year.

The City Gate office complex wasdeveloped by Globe Trade Center(GTC), which also built Europe Houseand America House in Bucharest, bothof which it sold. The site is made up oftwo 18-floor towers with a leasing areaof 43,000 sqm. The office complex wascompleted in fall last year.

Corina Saceanu

US Embassy builds energy efficientheadquarters in Bucharest


P R O P E R T Y

Troy Javaher is the new countrymanager of Jones Lang LaSalle’sRomanian office, following the ap-pointment of Thierry Delvaux asmanaging director of the firm’s in-

Conarg Real Estate, the develop-er of the Rasarit de Soare com-pound, sold 250 apartments in theproject in the second half of lastyear through the First House pro-gram, the company has announced.In total, around 85 percent of theowners of sold apartments in theproject financed their acquisitionsthrough mortgages, according toConarg Real Estate. So far, the de-veloper has sold 80 percent of the

988 apartments, with around 200apartments still up for sale.

The best sold apartments werestudios and two-room apartments,which go for around EUR 39,000and EUR 65,000 respectively, VATnot included.

Conarg Real Estate was set up in2006 and has so far delivered 1,300residential units in Quadra Placeand Rasarit de Soare.

Corina Saceanu

Troy Javaher becomes new countrymanager of Jones Lang LaSalle

ternational desk, JLL has an-nounced. Delvaux has been at thehelm of the Romanian subsidiary onan interim basis since CharlesKrick, the previous country manag-er, left the firm. The new appoint-ment comes at the same time as theappointment of Ferenc Furulyas ascountry manager for JLL’s Hungari-an office.

One of the two senior executivessent to launch the Jones LangLaSalle Bucharest office in 2007,Javaher has investment and devel-opment experience in all key realestate sectors and professional expe-rience in the South Eastern Euro-pean region dating back to 1998. Hewill continue to head the capitalmarkets division of the firm in Ro-mania.

Corina Saceanu

Conarg sells 80 percent of Rasaritde Soare project

The local subsidiary of Dutchpolyurethane foams and adhe-sives producer Den Braven post-ed EUR 30.8 million in sales lastyear, down 8 percent on the pre-vious one.

“These are very good resultsfor a crisis period, if we set our-selves against the drop in theconstruction segment. Other-wise, we could have kept oursales at the 2008 level becausewe had enough orders, but due tocash collection issues we havedecided to select our clientscarefully and stop delivering tocompanies we didn’t trust to pay

their bills,” said Adrian State,general manager of Den BravenRomania.

The company sold EUR 15.4million of polyurethane foams,which was up 15 percent on theprevious year. Sales of construc-tion materials dropped by 30 to50 percent in Romania last year,according to Den Braven.

The company increased itsexports of polyurethane foams,having made EUR 10.6 millionin sales from these products,which was up 43 percent.

Corina Saceanu

Den Braven posts EUR 31 million in sales

Troy Javaher will also head JLL’s capital marketsdivision

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After two good years for the local

hotel industry in 2007 and 2008, last

year saw the market decline.

However, this has not deterred

existing chains from planning their

expansion throughout the country,

buoyed by lower land and

construction costs. New players have

also put Romania on their map.

Corina Saceanu

At least five new hotel brands willenter the Romanian market in the nexttwo years, some of which have alreadyannounced their precise intentions. Theexpansion involves names in the portfo-lio of hotel groups that are already pres-ent in Romania with other properties.And at least one new hotel player willenter the Romanian market, Paul Mara-soiu, president of Peacock Hotels, tellsBusiness Review.

Hilton Worldwide chain, which al-ready has two affiliated units under theHilton brand in Romania, will bring itsmid-priced Double Tree and Hamptonbrands. Sheraton, which comes underthe Starwood Hotels and Resorts um-brella, is expected to open a 202-roomfacility but not until 2012.

By the end of the year, Days Inn, alower cost brand in the portfolio of hotelgroup Wyndham, will choose a provin-cial location in Romania and open a siteby the end of this year. And RezidorGroup, which is present through theRadisson Blu brand in Bucharest andvery soon in Brasov, is planning to ex-pand with a new name, Park Inn.

Clearly, the budget and economysegment has remarkable potential acrossthe country, says Marasoiu. He also seespotential for five-star units in larger Ro-manian cities and three-star facilities inclassic tourist regions. “Both from the

standpoint of the necessary investmentsand from the availability of managementand franchise solutions with internation-al hotel operators, the local market hastremendous potential,” predicts Mara-soiu. The new openings scheduled forthis year are mostly expected in citiesoutside the capital, where the market istipped by some to stabilize. “The biggestchange was certainly the increase inmarket supply with the opening of sev-eral new big hotels in Bucharest and thedecline in demand. We are not aware ofany significant changes to the hotel sup-ply in 2010, hence we expect the marketto stabilize,” Friedrich Niemann, gener-al manager of the Athenee Palace Hiltonin Bucharest, tells Business Review.

The most recent such opening inBucharest was that of that of Grand Ho-tel Continental, a five-star unit run by theContinental hotel chain, owned by Ro-manian businessman Radu Enache. Itwas revamped with an EUR 8 millioninvestment.

As many as 42 facilities have beenannounced for this year across Romania,according to consultancy company IBCFocus. Each would require EUR 1 mil-

lion in investment. Most of these hotels– about 25 units – are under construc-tion, nine are in the design phase andeight already being fitted out, accordingto IBC Focus. Only three of the 42 havebeen announced for Bucharest, the restbeing scattered elsewhere around thecountry. Mid last year, only ten hotels,making up 2,100 rooms in total, wereunder construction in Romania, accord-ing to data from the International HotelConstruction Project Database. The newinternationally branded hotel openingsscheduled for the next two to three yearsshould bring at least 1,000 more roomsonto the market, according to BusinessReview’s calculation.

“The market is being evaluated witha long-term view of the hotel industry,being a business which settles and con-solidates in at least two years. The fore-cast for the next two years, in our view,is upwards from the midway point ofthis year,” says Marasoiu.

For existing hoteliers, the opening ofnew units in their cities may spell furtherbad news, coming after a tough year forthe industry as a whole. “For owners andmanagers, this will be a year which will

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Hilton has affiliated a hotel in Oradea which will open this year under the Doubletree brand

Despite dismal 2009, internationalhotel chains focus on local expansion

show how coherent and solid their busi-nesses were. The crisis is a moment ofopportunity and consolidation, but onlyfor those who took their business seri-ously to begin with,” Marasoiu explains.

Despite a fall of around 28 percent inoccupancy rates, according to the hote-lier, there were facilities that not onlymaintained their rates from the previousyear, but even slightly increased them.There were falls in the net average tariffas well, but it is a different picture onvarious classification segments, in dif-ferent areas in the country.

“Last year, the Athenee PalaceHilton was in trend with the market sobusiness slackened off. The occupancyrate was around 65 percent, down 3 per-cent from 2008. But then again, 2008was the best year the hotel has ever had,”Niemann told Business Review.

Lower down the scale, the three-starhotel market saw a slump in occupancyfrom 59 percent in 2008 to 37 percentlast year, while the average tariff fellfrom RON 240 to RON 213, accordingto the Benchmarketing report by Fives-tar Hospitality. Four-star units had an oc-cupancy rate of 41.5 percent, down from54.5 percent the previous year. The aver-age room rate for these hotels slid fromRON 314 to RON 271. There are 10,000hotel rooms in Bucharest, out of which5,200 are four-star and 2,900 three-star.

Despite the slowdown in this sectorof the hospitality industry in the lastyear, international hotel groups arepreparing for when the market picks up.With several countries in Europe havingalready emerged from recession, hotelchains are betting on a market reboundin the next two years. In other goodnews for the sector, the cost of buyingland and building a hotel nowadays isconsiderably lower than two years ago.

WHAT IS OPENING WHERE?The Hilton Worldwide group has

signed a management agreement withCalipso S.A, a listed company owned bythe investment company SIF BanatCrisana, to launch a Doubletree byHilton hotel in Oradea, Romania.Scheduled to start operating by Septem-ber 2010, the facility will be HiltonWorldwide’s third hotel in Romania andthe country’s first Doubletree by Hilton.The move follows the opening of the

F O C U S


* actual classification varies on country requirements

Brand City Number Classification/ Date of openingof rooms price range

Radisson Blu by Rezidor Brasov 186 5 stars first half of 2010Doubletree by Hilton Oradea 147 4 stars September 2010Carol I Bucharest 72 4 stars June 2010Ramada by Wyndham Oradea 131 3 stars July 2010Days Inn by Wyndham N/A N/A 3 stars by end 2010Grand Hotel by Marriott Cluj- Napoca 151 5 stars 2010Howard Johnson by Wyndham Sinaia 102 5 stars 2010Hampton by Hilton Brasov 104 mid-priced * 2011Sheraton by Sherwood Cluj-Napoca 202 5 stars 2012Vendome Palace & Galerie Bucharest 120 5 stars 2012Novotel by Accor Timisoara 150 4 stars 2011/2012Etap by Accor Timisoara N/A 2 stars N/ARamada Encore by Wyndham Bucharest N/A 3 stars N/A

Planned hotel openings Hilton Sibiu in July 2009 and Hilton’sentry into Romania in 1997 with theAthenee Palace Hilton in Bucharest. Allin all, the hotel group plans to expandwith 25 new units in Romania in thenext five years, either through manage-ment or franchise contracts. It is target-ing cities such as Cluj-Napoca,Timisoara, Brasov, Iasi, Craiova andArad, according to previous announce-ments.

Meanwhile, Accor Group, whichruns the Pullman, Novotel and Ibis ho-tels in Romania, is planning to expandits Novotel chain to Timisoara and bringthe economy brand Etap into the coun-try, with Brasov and Timisoara as tar-gets. The group is planning to establish10 to 12 hotels in the next two to threeyears in Romanian cities such asTimisoara, Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts World-wide will bring its first Sheraton hotel tothe country, with a 202-room unit inCluj-Napoca. The hotel will most likelyopen in 2012, within the first Sigmatower, a project built by Sigma Towers.The investment in this unit will reachEUR 60 million, according to estimates.

Another big name on the localscene, the Marriott hotel chain, whichhas an operational unit under the JWMarriott brand in Bucharest, is planning

to launch a site in Cluj-Napoca too,where a 151-room unit will be ready thisyear. The international chain had previ-ously said it was planning to expandwith new concerns in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timisoara.

The Wyndham chain, known for theHoward Johnson and Ramada units inRomania, will continue to expand thesetwo names and will bring the three-star

Days Inn brand to Romania by the endof this year. The first unit will have 120rooms and will be located in a provincialcity in Romania.

Rezidor, which operates RadissonBlu hotel in Bucharest, will add anotherunit of this type in Poiana Brasov in thefirst half of this year. The opening of thehotel has been delayed, after being ini-tially scheduled for the last quarter of

2009. The 186-room unit required aEUR 60 million investment.

Bucharest will also have anotherfive-star hotel, the ninth such unit in thecity, after Marvel Group launches Ven-dome Palace & Galerie. The hotel devel-opers have not yet announced an opera-tor. The 120-room hotel will require aEUR 20 million investment.

[email protected]

BUSIN

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With the aim of combining his

professional life with the things he

enjoys doing, OLIVER PERKINS,

managing director of Brainovate,

wants to grow his company in a

sustainable and healthy way.

Anda Dragan

Expatriate Oliver Perkins cameto Romania at the beginning of 2000with a specific professional goal andended up staying here, first as anemployee and later as an entrepre-neur. His experience is a good argu-ment that Romania still affords op-portunities to those who can see andcapitalize on them. Perkins estab-lished Brainovate, a company whichoffers professional services such ascoaching, teambuilding, StrengthDeployment Inventory (SDI) andtraining, in 2007.

But how did he first come intocontact with the local market? “Ivisited Bucharest with the intentionof staying a few months and was of-fered a position at a multinationaltraining company. Ten years laterI’m still in Romania,” says the busi-nessman.

Expertise and professional back-ground are two of the most impor-tant factors when developing a busi-ness. Perkins says that his businessstory and background is not exactlyconventional. “After leaving school,I toured my native Ireland – organ-izing events, working in advertisingand in various sales jobs before re-turning to education at Durham Uni-versity,” he remembers. After thecompletion of his degree, he workedon a kibbutz in Israel and back-packed around the world before set-ting up an events company and lan-guage school in London.

The idea to set up his own busi-ness in Romania came naturally toPerkins. “Brainovate came aboutsimply because I felt instinctively Ishould do it, as is the case withmany entrepreneurs,” says Perkins.

He was determined to start a busi-ness because he was convinced thathe could do a better job on his ownand have a great time doing it.Building up and maintaining a clientbase was crucial to his mission. “Italso helped that I had built up a cus-tomer base who knew me and how Idid things, so the transition frommultinational to Brainovate waspretty straightforward,” adds thebusinessman.

While the unique selling pointchanged, the foundation remainedthe same. According to the entrepre-neur, the company he is running isbased upon a simple idea: that oftrying to create environments totake businesses to better places andachieve success – in whatever waythey define it. “The more I re-searched it and talked to people, theeasier it became to determine whatthey did to achieve success and how,as a business, I could help othersachieve it,” explains Perkins. Ac-cording to him, contrary to popular

belief, successful people aren’t al-ways the most organized, the mostintelligent, or the best communica-tors. But what most of them seem tohave in common is the imagination,vision and desire to turn theirdreams into reality. “We try to chal-lenge companies by suggesting thatit is not their people who are theirgreatest asset, but rather how thesepeople use their brains and energyto create lasting success,” adds theIrishman.

Recalling the most difficult mo-ment since he started the business,Perkins says that without doubt itwas building the company head-quarters in Bucharest. “Three col-lapsed walls and a court case later Ifinally realized the importance offorward planning and of having agood project manager,” he says. Hesays that both in his personal andprofessional life he doesn’t dwell onerrors. “If there is something you re-gret and you can remedy it, then dosomething about it. If not, forget it

and move on,” advises Perkins. Ofthe challenges that Brainovatefaced, he believes that they wereclearly part of the day-to-day life ofany business. After all, most peoplerealize that such challenges are partand parcel of who we are and helpshape our character.

In a market that is quite crowdedwith players, an entrepreneur has tomake the right decisions, moveswiftly and avoid making mistakesthat damage the business. ForPerkins, competition is not some-thing to be afraid of. “It is better toconcentrate on what you can influ-ence in your own business ratherthan wasting time on unimportantstuff. That seems pretty sensible tome.” In the same vein he also quotesRichard Branson, the founder of theVirgin conglomerate, who says thathe doesn’t worry about the competi-tion; better that the competitionspends their time worrying abouthim.

Another business philosophy ofPerkins’s is to do what you like todo. “Don’t’ waste time doing thingsyou hate. That just about sums uphow we do business,” he adds. Inthe future, the entrepreneur says thathe doesn’t intend to build a hugeconglomerate for a simple reason:“For me it’s not particularly inter-esting having huge teams of trainersor consultants wheeling out off-the-shelf programs to thousands of peo-ple,” says Perkins. He prefers tokeep each business unit very smallso that the company can concentrateon quality rather than quantity. “Weare opening our Dubai office thismonth and we have plans for othercountries in Eastern Europe andAsia,” says Perkins. As for Roma-nia, he says that most of Braino-vate’s focus will be on developingand marketing the Legacy Leader-ship program as well as the SDI pro-filing tools to managing directorsand senior management teams.

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Oliver Perkins first came to Romania in 2000, when he was planning to stay only a few months

Putting his brains into an enjoyable business

é Number of employees (total): 10

é Number of regional units: 2 –

Bucharest and Dubai (Dubai of-

fice to be opened this month)

é Initial investment: EUR 300,000

é Total investment: EUR 500,000

Brainovate

E V E N T S


Pop singer Elton John will per-form in Romania a week later thaninitially announced for logisticalreasons. The British singer will nowtake to the stage in Bucharest on

June 12. The venue remains thesame, Constitutiei Square. Theshow is part of the star’s World Tour2010.

Sir Elton John – real name Regi-nald Kenneth Dwight – has soldover 250 million albums all over theworld. He was one of the most in-fluential figures of 70s rock, and hashad more than 50 Top 40 hits, in-cluding seven consecutive No. 1 USalbums and nine No. 1 hits. John’sbest known hits include Sacrifice,Nikita and Sorry Seems to Be theHardest Word. His single Candle inthe Wind 1997 has sold over 37 mil-lion copies, making it the best sell-ing single ever.

In 2004, Rolling Stone rankedhim Number 49 on its list of the 100greatest artists of all time.

Otilia Haraga

Elton John’s Romania showpushed back a week

Bucharest’s Viennese Ballmarks its fifth anniversary this year,taking place on February 27.

The ball, which is organized byJW Marriott, traditionally takesplace at the Parliament Palace and isa fundraiser in aid of United WayRomania projects.

It positions itself as an exclusiveevent for the cream of the crop ofRomanian social circles, with over1,100 guests participating, includ-ing high-ranking politicians andeconomic and business leaders fromAustria, Romania and other coun-tries.

Attendees must comply with thedress code: ladies must wear floor-length evening gown, with trousersor short dresses not permitted, whilegentlemen must show up in longtails, black tie or uniform.

The cost of a ticket is RON900.For the full program of theevent, see http://business-review.ro/city/ Alles waltzen!

SCHEDULEé 18:30 Welcome Cocktail Recep-

tioné 20:00 Gala Dinneré 22:30 Defilee of 80 Debutantsé 24:00 Midnight Show &

Quadrilleé 03:30 Last Waltzé Performance: Operetta Show,

Ballet from the Bucharest StateOpera, Canzonettas

é Music: Schonbrunner Schlossor-chester with 30 musicians, HBShow band and guest stars fromRomania

é Dancing: Viennese Waltz, Polka,Gallop, Quadrille, Polka Mazur-ka & Modern Ballroom

é Food: Cocktail reception, GalaDinner with Austrian white andred wines and international openbar included

Otilia Haraga

Alles waltzen at the VienneseBall in February!

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The Rocketman’s gig is scheduled for June 12

Kings On Ice – Olympic Tour2010, a star-studded event showcas-ing the talents of some of the mostfamous world and EuropeanOlympic ice-skating champions,will take place at the Mihai Flamaropol rink in Bucharest onApril 11.

Sixteen of the top stars of inter-national skating will perform in theshow. They will be accompanied byHungarian violinist Edvin Marton,who won an Emmy for the Best Mu-sic Composition of the Year 2006and took gold in the World Compe-tition of Violinists.

Among those who take to the icewill be Evgeni Plushenko andStephane Lambiel. Plushenko wonthe gold medal at this year’s Euro-pean Artistic Skating Championshipin Tallinn. He is also the most gar-landed skater in the world, takingthe art and technique of skating to awhole new level. In a 14-year careerthe Russian skater won no fewerthan 50 gold medals, participatingin 76 competitions. He has beenworld champion three times, Euro-pean champion five times, won theGrand Prix competition four times,and the National Skating Champi-onship in Russia seven times, a haulunsurpassed by anyone else. He isone of the few skaters who can dothe Biellmann spin, and was the firstto execute the quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop-double loop jump.

Lambiel took bronze in the Eu-ropean Artistic Skating Champi-onship. In 2005, he became worldchampion in Moscow for the firsttime, after which he took the silvermedal at the Olympic Games inTorino and a new world championtitle in 2006.

The show is organized by Am-phitrion. Tickets are on sale in theDiverta network and from the sitewww.myticket.ro.

Otilia Haraga

Kings On Ice skate intoBucharest in April

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Evgeni Plushenko has won 50 gold medals

Who’s Bad, one of the most fa-mous Michael Jackson tributebands, will play the Palace Hall in

Bucharest on March 17. The band takes its name from

the King of Pop’s hit Bad. It isformed of seven members who tookdance lessons from Jackson’s chore-ographer, Travis Payne, and one ofhis dancers.

Tickets for the concert cost between RON 80 and 260 and can be bought from the Diverta, Muzica, Germanos and Vodafone stores as well as the Carturesti book chain. Online, the tickets are on sale on the siteswww.eventim.ro, www.bilete.ro,www.blt.ro, www.vreaubilet.ro,www.myticket.ro and www.ticket-point.ro.

Otilia Haraga

Michael Jackson tribute bandcomes to the capital

The star died last year

E V E N T S


British rocker Rod Stewart willperform at the Iolanda Balas-Soter

stadium in Bucharest on June 29.Stewart will be promoting his latestalbum, Soulbook, which was re-leased last year.

The 65-year-old rose to fame atthe end of the 1960s, through hiscollaboration with bands such asThe Jeff Beck Group and The Faces,which had a substantial influence onthe formation of the heavy metaland punk rock genres.

His hits include Do Ya Think I'mSexy?, Ruby Tuesday, Baby Janeand Maggie May, and he has scoredsuccesses both in Britain and theUnited States.

Stewart was voted 33rd in QMagazine’s list of the 100 GreatestSingers of all time. His album andsingle sales put him among the best-selling music artists worldwide.

Otilia Haraga

Rod Stewart to play Bucharest in June

The singer is promoting his latest album

The Romanian state has announcedthat it will send humanitarian aid worthEUR 50,000 to the Republic of Haiti,following the devastating earthquakethat killed upwards of 110,000 people.The sum will come from the Ministry ofExternal Affairs’ 2010 budget for devel-opment assistance, through the WorldFood Program. Twenty-one police offi-cers have also been dispatched to theUNO mission in Haiti.

In other efforts to help the strickencountry, a telethon, Haiti – the Childrenof Chaos, was organized by RealitateaTV in partnership with Unicef, andraised EUR 350,000. During the event,President Traian Basescu announced hewould donate his next month’s salary tothe cause. The campaign still continuesand those who wish to donate can do itin various ways. To make a EUR 2 do-

nation, send an SMS to 848 in the Or-ange, Vodafone and Cosmote networksor call 0900 900 563 in the Romtelecomnetwork. For a EUR 5 or EUR 10 dona-tion, the numbers to call in the Romtele-com network are 0900 900 565 and0900 900 567, respectively. Donors canalso deposit money in the Unicef ac-count at any BRD-Groupe Societe Gen-erale branch in the account RO10 BRDE450S V434 6556 4500 or code 04.

The European Commission has an-nounced it will devote EUR 30 millionin aid to Haiti, to which will be addedcontributions of EUR 100 million forrestoring government infrastructure andEUR 200 million for the country’s re-construction and development.

Otilia Haraga

A Unicef gala raised EUR 350,000, while the state will send EUR 50,000 to Haiti

Romania sends help to stricken Haiti

The Zambaccian Museum will hosta conference in French on February 3

entitled “Bernard Boutet de Monvel oula naissance de l’art deco” (BernardBoutet de Monvel or the birth of art de-co). The event will be held by Stephane-Jacques Addade, member of the Euro-pean Chamber of Art Experts. Boutet deMonvel (1881-1949) is known for theminute detail of his urban landscapes ofNew York City, which he created in the1920s and 1930s. This is the second offour conferences that Addade is holdingfor art lovers, which is part of theFriends’ Evenings at the ZambaccianMuseum which started in October 2009.Participation is free of charge but confir-mation should be made by calling 021231 5517 or 0762 215800 or by e-mailto [email protected].

Otilia Haraga

Art conference takes place atZambaccian Museum

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This is the second of four planned conferences

The Bucharest National Opera haslaunched studiOpera, an ‘academy’ forprofessionals in the art of the stage inRomania. This will be a center in whichartists, technicians and art managers will

be able to perfect their skills. The program is co-financed by the

European Social Fund through the pro-gram, The Development of Human Re-sources 2007- 2013. Invest in People.

The aim of the project is to draw onthe top expertise from abroad to improvethe performing arts in Romania by ex-panding the model of the AcademieiTeatro alla Scala locally. It will be imple-mented over the course of three years bythe Bucharest National Opera in partner-ship with Accademia Teatro alla Scalafrom Milan and SVASTA Consult Ro-mania.

The first stage of the project (No-vember 2009- July 2010) will see exten-sive research focusing on the entire sys-tem of professional formation in Roma-nia, to discover the weaknesses of thesystem and identify training needs.

Otilia Haraga

Modu, the lightest mobile phonein the world, will be launched in Ro-mania in mid February in Vodafonestores.

The phone has entered the Guin-ness Book of World Records for itssize: it is 37 millimeters wide and 72millimeters long. It has a memory of 2GB, a keyboard of just seven keys,OLED screen and micro USB. It wasmade by Modu, a company that wasfounded in 2007 by Dov Moran, the

investor of the USB stick. The device will be distributed in

Romania by TDT distribution. “Ro-mania is the first European countrywhere Modu is being launched. Overthe course of this year we will launchit on other Eastern European markets,”said Moran.

The price of the handset in Roma-nia is not yet known but in other coun-tries it retails at around USD 100.

Otilia Haraga

Lightest mobile phone floated in Romania

LAU

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The project will last three years

National Opera launches program for stageprofessionals

business review issue 3, february 1-7, 2010

Documents

robusiness review

market entry

yearssee pages

withnew brands

existing hotel chains

longterm approachsee

telecom market arefocusing

international levelsee