Business Review

The EUR 315 million Japanese loan which will fuel the construction of the Bucharest – Henri Coanda airport tube network has been recently signed in Tokyo by the Romanian government representatives and their Japanese counterparts during a visit in Tokyo.

The Ministry of Communications will install this year another 300 hotspots in public areas, which will be distributed on the entire territory of the country. This measure is meant to expand the degree of access to broadband services so that more and more users can access the information they need through laptops, PDA (personal digital assistant) or desktop with WiFi connection devices.

The 300 hotspots will be installed with an estimated investment of RON 923,000, no VAT included. The internet flux will be ensured by the Ministry for a year.

Private medical clinic operator MedLife has invested EUR 500,000 in a gastroenterology unit within MedLife Favorit clinic, the company has announced. MedLife expects to have 6,000 patients for the unit each year, with an average of 500 patients each month. The company expects the revenues generated by this addition to have an important weight in the estimated budget for the MedLife Favorit clinic.

Annual inflation fell first the first time after three consecutive months when the economic indicator registered constant increases. The annual inflation reached a 4.49 percent level , compared with 5.2 percent in January this year. According to the National Statistics Institute, the inflation fell as a result of lower hike in product prices in February, compared with previous months.

IT&S, importer and distributor of products in Copy & Print, Document Management & IT Solutions and Imaging & Multimedia, predicts it will post a turnover of EUR 15-18 million in 2010. “We aim to diversify the categories of traded products in the first half of the year 2010, adding to the existent portfolio the LCD television sets,” announced Dana Iorga, the General Manager of IT&S. The company posted a turnover of EUR 25 million in the fiscal year 2008- 2009. For 2010, IT&S aims to reach a turnover of EUR 15-18 million, function of the evolution of the market.

Garrigues Spain has advised Caixa Catalunya, the fifth largest savings bank in Spain by volume of assets, on the EUR 556.8 million sale of half of its insurance business to leading Spanish insurer, Mapfre. Under the deal, which was completed on March 5, Caixa Catalunya and Mapfre will jointly develop the savings bank’s solid insurance and pension business. More specifically, Mapfre will acquire 50 percent of Caixa Catalunya’s subsidiaries that offer insurance services throughout Iberia.

S.A.S Grup posted a turnover of approximately EUR 1.6 million (RON 6,800,000) for 2009, which represents an increase of 32.16 percent compared to the previous year when it posted nearly EUR 1.3 million (RON 5,145,000. The net profit increased with 69.9 percent from approximately EUR 99,000 (RON 395,000) in 2008 to approximately EUR 158,000 (RON 670,000) last year.

Turkish companies active in Romania expect to increase trade between Turkey and Romania by 20 percent next year, according to data from the Association of Turkish Investors in Romania (TIAD).

Romanian leasing market decreased by 72 percent last year on 2008, to EUR 1.33 billion, as a result of the drop of automotive market, announced ALB - Financial Companies Association in Romania. Besides the leasing market evolution was in close connection with the whole Romanian economy development, which posted a decrease of over 7 percent last year on 2008.

The Bucharest subway unionists have announced that will restart the general strike on March 18.

According to the strike program the subway trains will not be operational between 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. on March 18 and normal traffic will be resumed from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., as the law requires subway staff to ensure a third of normal activity during a general strike.