January 9 (SeeNews) - Following is a selection of some of the top stories and interviews moved by SeeNews The Corporate Wire this week:
ESMARK EUROPE FILES SOLE VALID BID FOR AILING SERBIAN STEEL MILL
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
Esmark Europe, a unit of U.S.-based Esmark, Inc., has filed the only valid bid in the privatisation tender for Serbia's ailing steel mill Zelezara Smederevo, the government in Belgrade said on Friday.
In December, Serbia's Privatisation Agency opened a public tender to select a strategic partner that would acquire 80.01% of Zelezara Smederevo through recapitalisation. The relevant application deadline expired on January 5. The tender attracted three bids.
The signing of the privatisation deal with Esmark for Zelezara Smederevo is expected by January 31 at the latest, the government said in a statement, quoting the head of the commission in charge of the sell-off procedure, Bojan Bojkovic.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/update-1-esmark-europe-files-sole-valid-bid-for-ailing-serbian-steel-mill-457588
REGULATOR FINES KPMG BULGARIA OVER CORPBANK AUDIT GAPS
A Bulgarian regulator said on Friday it has fined KPMG Bulgaria, part of global consultancy KPMG International, and two of its auditors a total of 200,000 levs ($120,600/102,200 euro) after it established serious deficiencies in their work as auditors of Corporate Commercial Bank [BUL:6C9] before the bank was hit by a run on deposits in June.
On June 20, Bulgaria's central bank placed Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) under special supervision over risk of insolvency after it notified the central bank it had run out of liquidity and had suspended payments and all types of banking operations. On November 6, the central bank delicensed Corpbank and said it would seek the bank's insolvency after it was found to have a negative own capital of 3.75 billion levs as of September 3.
The Commission for Public Oversight of Statutory Auditors (CPOSA) has found that KPMG Bulgaria's auditing of Corpbank has been marked by serious gaps as certain risk areas were not inspected thoroughly and the central bank was not notified about these risk factors, a commission official told SeeNews over the phone.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/regulator-fines-kpmg-bulgaria-over-corpbank-audit-gaps-457553
ROMANIA'S 2014 CONS BUDGET SHOWS 1.98%/GDP GAP - FIN MIN
Romania's 2014 consolidated budget showed an estimated deficit of 1.98% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP), in line with the country's commitments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), finance minister Darius Valcov said.
"This was the agreement with the IMF and the European Commission, during their last visit, to [post a deficit of] below 2.0%," Valcov told a news conference on Thursday. An audio file of the press conference was provided to SeeNews on Friday by the finance ministry's press office.
Under the 2014 budget law, Romania had targeted a deficit equivalent to 2.2% of GDP but, at the beginning of December, representatives of the IMF and the European Commission asked the government in Bucharest to tighten the belt even further.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/romanias-2014-cons-budget-shows-1-98-gdp-gap-fin-min-457439
EBRD, EIB, POTENTIAL PARTNERS MULL BACKING 99 MW WPP PROJECT IN SERBIA
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other potential lenders are considering providing financing for the 99 megawatt Alibunar A wind farm project in Serbia, the EBRD said on Friday.
The planned wind farm in the Alibunar municipality, 55 km northeast of Belgrade, will be operated by Windvision Windfarm A, a special purpose company registered in Serbia for the sole purpose of developing and implementing the project, the EBRD said in a statement.
Windvision Windfarm A is presently owned by Windvision Holding BV, a company headquartered in Belgium with a portfolio of operational wind projects in Belgium and a development pipeline of projects in Europe and Morocco.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/ebrd-eib-potential-partners-mull-backing-99-mw-wpp-project-in-serbia-457486
SLOVENIA'S ADRIA AIRWAYS CO-OWNERS SIGN DEAL TO SELL JOINT 91.58% STAKE
Slovenian state holding firm SDH said on Friday several shareholders of national flag carrier Adria Airways have signed a deal to jointly pursue the sale of a combined 91.58% stake in the company.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/update-1-slovenias-adria-airways-co-owners-sign-deal-to-sell-joint-91-58-stake-457462
TURKEY'S KORDSA GLOBAL WRAPS UP $100 MLN CAPACITY EXPANSION IN INDONESIA
Turkish textile company Kordsa Global Endustriyel Iplik ve Kord Bezi Sanayi ve Ticaret [BIST:KORDS] said it has completed a $100 million (84 million euro) capacity expansion investment in Indonesia.
The investment expands the annual polyester yarn and cord fabric production capacity of Kordsa Global’s units PT Indo Kordsa Tbk and PT Indo Kordsa Polyester by a total of 18,000 tonnes, Kordsa Global said in a statement.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/turkeys-kordsa-global-wraps-up-100-mln-capacity-expansion-in-indonesia-456821
CROATIA TO UNDERSHOOT 2014 BUDGET GAP TARGET - FIN MIN
Croatian finance minister Boris Lalovac said on Monday preliminary data on a cash basis shows the country's 2014 budget gap coming in at around 12.8 billion kuna ($1.99 billion/1.67 billion euro), undershooting a target set a few months earlier.
In October, the government rebalanced the country's budget for 2014, raising the deficit target to 15.6 billion kuna, equivalent to 4.8% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP).
The previous deficit target, set in budget revision adopted in March, was 13.6 billion kuna, equivalent to 4.1% of GDP.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/croatia-to-undershoot-2014-budget-gap-target-fin-min-456684
ROMANIAN C-BANK CUTS KEY RATE TO RECORD-LOW 2.50%
Romania's central bank said on Wednesday it decided to cut its monetary policy rate to a record low of 2.50% per year from 2.75%, as expected, amid low inflation and recovering domestic demand.
The board of the central bank, BNR, also decided to narrow the symmetrical corridor of interest rates on its standing facilities around the policy rate to plus/minus 2.25 percentage points from plus/minus 2.5 percentage points. Thus, the interest rate on BNR’s lending facility, Lombard, will be lowered to an annual 4.75% from 5.25%, while its deposit facility rate will remain at 0.25% per annum, the central bank said in a statement.
Also on Wednesday, the BNR kept unchanged the minimum reserve requirements ratios on liabilities of credit institutions, at 10% for leu-denominated liabilities and at 14% for the ones denominated in foreign currency, and said it would pursue an adequate liquidity management in the banking system.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/update-1-romania-c-bank-cuts-key-rate-to-record-low-2-50-457053
MACEDONIA'S ONE, VIP OPERATOR TO MERGE INTO ONE.VIP - ANTI-TRUST BODY
The Macedonian competition watchdog said that the company resulting from the planned merger of the Macedonian units of Telekom Slovenije [LJE:TLSG] and Telekom Austria Group will be named one.Vip.
Telekom Austria’s unit in Macedonia, Vip Operator, and Telekom Slovenije’s unit, ONE, signed a deal on their merger on December 30.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/macedonias-one-vip-operator-to-merge-into-one-vip-anti-trust-body-457598
ALBANIA'S DEC CPI RISES 0.7% Y/Y
Albania's consumer prices advanced by an annual 0.7% in December, mainly due to a rise in the prices of education services and alcoholic drinks and tobacco, the National Statistics Office, INSTAT, said on Thursday.
Month-on-month, the country's consumer price index (CPI) also increased by 0.7% in December, INSTAT said in a monthly report.
Read more at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/albania-s-dec-cpi-rises-0-7-y-y-table-457172
INTERVIEWS
RAIFFEISEN INVESTMENTS SEES TURKEY'S 2015 M&A MARKET UP ON QUIET POLITICAL CALENDAR
The mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market in Turkey could see a boost this year from the absence of any events in the political calendar that could disrupt the deal-making flow, the managing director of Raiffeisen Investment Turkey said.
“Developments in the wider region, while negative for particular countries, could be beneficial for the M&A market in Turkey in 2015. For example, Russia will be a very difficult market to invest in this year and that could probably prompt some of the investors that were looking at the region to focus more on Turkey,” Gokce Kabatepe told SeeNews in a phone interview from his office in Istanbul.
One potential risk going forward would be if the level of investor appetite for emerging markets declines – may be due to the U.S. Fed hiking rates or similar events – and that could affect M&As in 2015, Kabatepe cautioned.
Read the full text of the interview at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/interview-raiffeisen-investment-sees-turkey-s-2015-m-a-market-up-on-quiet-political-calendar-456548
RISE IN SLOVENIA'S BANKING SYSTEM NPLs EXPECTED TO CONTINUE IN 2015
The growth of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the Slovenian banking system is expected to continue this year in the absence of significant reforms needed to speed up the restructuring and deleveraging of local companies and to help attract foreign investments, Ljubljana-based analyst Matej Simnic said.
“After a drop in NPLs due to the transfer to BAMC, the country’s ‘bad bank’, of exposures on the books of lenders bailed out by the government, the negative trends remained unchanged and the growth of NPLs continued last year. I believe this will persist in 2015,” Simnic, a financial analyst at investment company Alta Invest, told SeeNews in an emailed interview.
In 2013, the Slovenian government recapitalized five banks, including the country’s three biggest lenders – NLB, NKBM and Abanka, narrowly avoiding an international bailout.
Read the full text of the interview at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/interview-rise-in-slovenia-s-banking-system-npls-expected-to-continue-in-2015-457204
SUBWAY BULGARIA EYES ENTRY INTO NEW CITIES IN 2015
Quick-service restaurant chain Subway plans to expand its network in Bulgaria in 2015, opening new restaurants both in cities where it is already present and entering new ones, Subway Bulgaria's CEO said on Thursday.
"Our main goal this year is to raise the number of restaurants in the Subway chain both by attracting new franchise holders and by encouraging the existing ones' interest in new openings," Ivan Todorov told SeeNews in an emailed interview. Todorov holds the master franchise for the Bulgarian market.
As much as 60% of all Subway restaurants in Bulgaria are owned by franchiseеs, two-thirds of whom operate more than one Subway outlet.
Read the full text of the interview at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/interview-subway-bulgaria-eyes-entry-into-new-cities-in-2015-457239
SLOVENIAN STOCK MARKET MAY RISE BY OVER 10% ON SUSTAINED SELL-OFF BUZZ IN 2015
The benchmark share index of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, the SBI TOP, could rise by over 10% this year if the momentum behind the country’s privatization story is sustained, Ljubljana-based analyst Saso Stanovnik said.
“Our SBI TOP target for the end of 2015 is 870 points with its earnings-per-share expected to increase by 8.1%. This implies a price/earnings multiple of 12.5, a low number that is due to some domestic peculiarities, especially the high level of state involvement in the economy,” Stanovnik, head of research at investment company Alta Invest, told SeeNews in an emailed interview.
The SBI TOP index of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, LJSE, was up 19.6% to 784.12 points in 2014 when total equity market capitalization increased by nearly 20% to 6.2 billion euro ($7.36 billion).
Read the full text of the interview at: http://wire.seenews.com/news/interview-slovenian-stock-index-may-rise-by-over-10-on-sustained-sell-off-buzz-in-2015-456917