3Q

Global shiftRazvan Iorgu, generaldirector of CBRE Ro-mania, says the com-pany’s aim is to alignits service portfolio ata global level» page 3

NEWS

Profi-table moveRetailer Profi haschanged its formatfrom discounter toproximity store» page 4

FOCUS

Ploughing onSales of agriculturalequipment are on therise after a good yearfor crops» page 14

POWER

Deregulation debateKeeping energy pricesregulated could deterinvestment in localenergy infrastructure» page 16

PLUS

Gourmet restaurantPhill launches with aGordon Ramsay tie-in» page 17

Tinker Tailor SoldierSpy comes under ourcritic’s surveillance» page 17

ROMANIA’S PREMIERE BUSINESS WEEKLY FEBRUARY 20-26, 2010 / VOLUME 16, NUMBER 5

INTERVIEW: David Hay, CEO of AFI Europe Romania, tells BRabout the company’s local development plans, for which it hassecured a EUR 13 million financing line, and upcoming openingssuch as AFI Palace Ploiesti »page 15

LINKS: ACTAWITH ACTA OPPO-NENTS CLOSING RANKS, SOME COUNTRIES CHAN-GING THEIR STANCEAND A KEY ECJ DECISION GOINGAGAINST IT, WILL THE TREATY GET DERAILED? »PAGE 12

NEWS in brief

ENERGYRomanian electricity exportsmay be limited or stoppedGrid operator Transelectrica can limit orstop electricity exports due to shortages inthe national energy system (SEN), undera bill approved last week by the govern-ment. The measure can be applied be-tween February 16 and March 15, if con-sumption and generation capacity arenot balanced. At present, Romania gen-erates 8910 MW, while consumption totals8702 MW. The Ministry of Economy saysthere is an electricity deficit due to de-creases in river flows and on the Danube,the increased cost of natural gas importsand the difficulty in delivering coal andnatural gas.

Transgaz puts EUR 10 mln intoNabucco projectRomanian gas transmission companyTransgaz will contribute EUR 10.2 millionto the consolidated budget of Nabucco GasPipeline International in H1. The sumrepresents the 16.6 percent stake thatTransgaz has in Nabucco. Transgaz’s netprofit improved by 4 percent y/y to RON392 million in 2011, by Romanian ac-counting standards, as the quantity ofnatural gas transported hiked by about 5million MWh. Increased revenue fromfines and penalties, along with interest andexchange rate gains, contributed to thegrowth. Turnover increased by 2.6 percenty/y to RON 1.3 billion.

FAST FOODLocal KFC, Pizza Hut and PHDditch Pepsi for rival Coca-ColaCoca-Cola HBC has become the new sup-plier of soft drinks for the local network ofKFC, Pizza Hut and PHD restaurants, re-placing rival Pepsi. In total there are 64restaurants in Romania under the KFC,Pizza Hut and PHD brands, which areowned by American company Yum!. Thelocal business is controlled by GabrielPopoviciu and Radu Dimofte. Another

REAL ESTATEOctagon posts 23 percent profithike for 2011Octagon Contracting & Consulting signednew contracts worth EUR 3 million lastyear, while its total turnover reached EUR12.5 million. The company’s profit amount-ed to EUR 580,000, up 23 percent y-o-y.Last year it established an office in Iraq,Baghdad, and acquired 58.5 percent of Co-mat Electro, an industrial park inBucharest. The company was set up in2005 by Alexandros Ignatiadis and hispartner, Paschalis Paganias.

RETAILThree oil brands take up 70percent of visible shelf space inmodern retailEdible oil reached an average of 5,588 cmof visible shelf space in modern retail out-lets, from June-November 2011, accordingto data from Iway Media Interactive, a com-pany providing real-time retail audit track-ing services. Sunflower oil takes up 77 per-cent of the space, followed by olive oil with14 percent. The remaining 9 percent is tak-en up by other edible oil (palm, corn,peanut, etc). Three competitors – Bunge,Cargill and Argus – make up almost 70 per-cent of the category. Private and exclusivebrands have an average of 16.2 percent ofthe shelf.

TELECOMVodafone outsources appliedmanagement services toHuaweiVodafone Romania has outsourced toHuawei its applied management servicesin the technology area. The five-year-part-nership includes website maintenanceand construction as well as infrastruc-ture activities. Approximately 70 expertsfrom Vodafone will join Huawei as part ofthe team in charge of these activities.

NEWS 3www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

WEEKin numbers

10kdoctors have left Romania since2007 as a result of migration andrecruitment freezes in the system

3.2bneuros is the EU funds taken by

Romanian agricultural producersover 2007-2011, 42 percent of the

total available

change announced by the company isthat as of the end of last year, Mark Hiltonis the new CEO of the Yum! brands in Ro-mania.

INNOVATIONFirst Romanian nano-satelliteshot into spaceGoliat, the first Romanian nano-satellite,which was developed by a research con-sortium led by the Romanian SpaceAgency, was launched last week, the in-stitution announced on its website. Thelaunch took place during the inauguralflight of the Vega rocket belonging to theEuropean Space Agency, which departedfrom a base in French Guiana. Goliat is acubic-like satellite with sides measuring100 millimeters each and a weight of1,062 grams. Its standard mission willlast six months.

3Q Razvan Iorgu

general director CBRE Romania

What do you think will be the most at-tractive real estate sector for invest-ments this year?Like last year, office and retail will re-main the most active sectors. 2013 and2014 will be the years when severallarger office projects are delivered, es-pecially in the Barbu Vacarescu andOrhideea areas. Some of these projectswere begun last year, others will start in2012.

As for retail, last year 200,000 sqmwas delivered. In the last quarter of lastyear alone, several projects includingMaritimo in Constanta (50,000 sqm), Gal-leria Arad (33,000 sqm) and OradeaShopping (30,000 sqm) were finished,while Baneasa Shopping City was ex-tended. Bearing this in mind, we can saythat this segment too is in full develop-ment.

Overall, we expect 2012 to be at leastas good as 2011. The premises have al-ready been set with several projects hav-ing been announced, which makes us op-timistic.

Will financing continue to be a problemfor the local real estate market in 2012?Getting financing and its cost continue tobe an issue for the real estate sector. Thelack of financial resources is a problemfor all Central and Eastern Europeanmarkets. Right now transactions are rare– financing is the only element missing.Moreover, projects are not feasible atsuch a high financing cost.

Investors are looking at the local mar-ket because prices are low and becausethe country has a lower indebtedness ra-tio compared to other regional markets.According to Eurostat, at the end of 2010,Romania had a debt-to-GDP ratio of 31percent, while in Poland it was 55.

Do you intend to launch new servicesthis year?Some of the most significant changes weare undergoing right now are due to thearrival of James Heyworth Dunne, thenew head of capital markets at CBRE.

Our medium-term objective is to ex-tend our service portfolio, which meansaligning it at global level. The segmentsthat will be developed in the coming pe-riod will be project management andproperty management. The first steps inthis direction were already taken with theacquisition of Euro Mall Centre Manage-ment by CBRE at a global level.

simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

PICTUREof the weekRoyal seal of approvalPrince Paul of Romania was offi-cially recognized by the HighCourt of Justice in Romania asan official heir of Prince Carol IIof Romania. Paul, 64, and hiswife Lia have a son, Carol Ferdi-nand, born in 2010, and baptizedby President Traian Basescu.The Royal House of Romania hasan estimated fortune of EUR 180million.

4 NEWS www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

RETAIL

Retailer Profi changes format from discounter toproximity storeAfter having closed all of its 107 out-

lets for one day last week, retailerProfi has reopened them as prox-

imity stores. The retailer previously op-erated as a discounter.

“The retail business environment haschanged and the borders between dis-count stores, supermarkets and hyper-markets are becoming increasingly un-certain as each of these formats bor-rows from the methods and character-istics of the others,” said Pawel Musial,general director of Profi Rom Food. Headded that the new format is neither adiscount store, nor a supermarket, butsimply “close” to the customer.

Profi stores have been refurbishedand the product portfolio extended. Mu-sial disclosed that while the investmentmade in opening a new shop amounts to

“several hundred thousand”, the refur-bishing of an outlet costs between EUR100,000 and EUR 200,000.

The firm’s product portfolio has beenincreased to about 5,000 items and theretailer also plans to focus on private la-bels, which grew to represent 18 percentof the company’s sales last year.

Profi reported for last year sales ofRON 1.04 billion (approximately EUR214.5 million), up 29 percent y-o-y. Thegrowth was mainly generated by the

opening of 26 new stores, while like-for-like sales growth was 7.5 percent. The re-tailer plans to open about 30 new outletsthis year and estimates that it will closetwo or three of the existing ones.

Profi discount stores are owned byEnterprise Investors, a Polish privateequity company that bought the retailnetwork in 2010 from Duna Waiting Par-ticipation for EUR 66 million. EnterpriseInvestors announced last October a EUR10 million investment in further ex-panding the retail network.

Musial said that Enterprise Investorshas no plans to sell the business for thetime being. “The most likely scenario forProfi is that the current ownership struc-ture will be maintained or it will be list-ed on the Bucharest, Vienna or moreprobably the Warsaw stock exchange,”he revealed. The option of selling has notbeen ruled out should a company offer “three or four times” the value ofthe investment made by Enterprise In-vestors, but Musial thinks this is an un-likely scenario in the present economiccontext. ∫

Simona Bazavan

Pawel Musial, Profi general director

RETAIL

Optimistic Flanco targets 27 percent turnoverhike to EUR 140 million

The level of retailer Flanco’s businessin Romania is predicted to reachEUR 140 million in 2012, a 27 per-

cent surge year-on-year. At the sametime, the firm’s estimated operationalprofit for this year is EUR 4.7 million, up34 percent on the previous year, as an-nounced by Violeta Luca, marketingmanager at Flanco.

The retailer ended 2011 with aturnover of EUR 110 million, up 37.5percent year-on-year. Its operationalprofit was EUR 3.5 million last year, ac-cording to the financial indicators an-nounced by the company. Last year,Flanco had a market share of 11 percent.

This was the second year of growth

for Flanco, which was declared insolventat the end of 2009. Things started to lookup for the retailer after the former AsesoftDistribution, controlled by businessmenIulian Stanciu and Sebastian Ghita (cur-rently Network One Distribution) took over a 60 percent stake in the ailingfirm.

Flanco ended 2011 with a sales surfaceof 41,500 sqm, but plans to expand thisby 20 percent in 2012. At the end of lastyear it had 77 stores, of which 83 percentwere in shopping centers and 17 percentin street locations.

In 2011 Flanco opened 14 new shops,following investments of over EUR 8.5million, including stock. However, it

also closed seven outlets for reasonsthat had to do with too small sales areas,inadequate locations or poor perform-ance.

The stores opened in the second halfof 2011 as well as those which will beopened this year are based on a new con-cept launched in October 2011 in theUnirea Shopping Center outlet.

Flanco has budgeted investments ofEUR 3.5 million for 2012, which will gointo the opening of five new shops underthe new concept.

Last year, the retailer also boosted itsteam from 600 to 870 employees. In2012, it aims to add 100 more people toits roster. The firm also had a marketingboost, with ten people working in this de-partment, Luca told Business Review.

Romania, still a green market According to Flanco estimations, the

overall market will reach EUR 1.25 billionthis year, up from EUR 1.1 million in2011. The average expenditure per capi-ta on IT products and electronic homeappliances in Romania was EUR 60, upfrom EUR 52 in 2010. In 2012, this couldgo up by 5-7 percent, compared to theprevious year.

By comparison, in countries such asthe Czech Republic and Slovakia the av-erage expenditure per capita was EUR265 and EUR 165, respectively.

This means that Romania has veryhigh potential. However, the possibilityof new entries on the market this year is

“slim to nil” because of the low level ofexpenditure recorded per capita, said

Luca. ∫ Otilia Haraga

Thinking big: Flanco plans to expand its sales surface by 20 percent in 2012

BUSINESS AGENDAFebruary 2111:00Lufthansa organizes a press confer-ence to present its operational resultsat Radisson Blu Hotel. Patrick Artiel,general director Lufthansa PassengerSales Romania and Moldova, will at-tend. By invitation only.

February 22 20:00BR organizes the seventh edition ofthe Annual Investment Awards atAthenee Palace Hilton Hotel. Detailsat www.business-review.ro/events.By invitation only.

February 23Asebuss organizes the conferenceBusiness of the Brain – CustomerSatisfaction or Customer Loyalty. En-trepreneur and innovation manage-ment professor Neale Martin will at-tend.By invitation only.

February 2310:00The National Council of Small and Medium Sized Private Enter-prises in Romania (CNIPMMR) organ-izes a seminar on ways to boost en-terprises during the economic crisis,at its headquarters in Bucharest. Byinvitation only.

February 29 ∫EVENTBR organizes the first edition of theAccess to Finance forum. The eventwill focus on PPP, EU Funds and StateAid. Details at www.business-re-view.ro/events. By invitation only.

February 2310:00UPC organizes a press conference topresent its financial results for Q4,2011 at SkyBar. Severina Pascu, CEOof UPC Romania, will attend. By invi-tation only.

February 22-23Digital Marketing Forum, an eventthat reunites marketing and adver-tising professionals, is organized atAthenee Palace Hilton. By invitationonly.

March 111:00Honda launches the new Civic modelat the Honda Carpati Motor show-room in Bucharest. Masahiro Mat-sushita, president of Honda TradingRomania, will attend. By invitationonly.

March 14-15PR Forum, a two-day conference thatanalyses trends in the public relationsbusiness, is organized at JW MarriottBucharest Grand Hotel. By invitationonly.

Photo: Laurentiu Obae

NEWS 5www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

MACRO

Romania’seconomy grewby 2.5 percentin 2011

RETAIL

A predictable outcome: Mic.ro files for insolvency

Aflash estimate from the NationalStatistics Institute (INS) made pub-lic last week indicated that Romania’s

GDP had increased by 2.5 percent in 2011.The euro zone economy gained 1.5 percentwhile EU 27 grew by 1.6 percent, accordingto statistical bureau Eurostat.

“The economic growth registered lastyear was fueled by exports of industrial out-put and a good harvest year, but thesegrowth engines will slow down this year,due to a sharp decrease in investments,”Melania Hancila, head of the research andstrategy department at Volksbank, toldBR.

Hancila says that a slow recovery hasbeen registered in construction and retail,on a favorable basis effect, following thesteep contractions of the previous years.

INS data also show the economy de-creased by 0.2 percent from Q3 to Q4 of 2011,although the growth in Q4 was 2.1 percentversus Q4 2010. In Q4, the EUR 27 lost 0.3percent. The Volksbank economist says theeconomy will further shrink in the firstquarter of this year, due to bad weather anda lack of stimulus for the real economy.Thus, two consecutive quarters of GDP de-crease will see Romania slip back into re-cession.

“We forecast the economy will slow itsgrowth to 1 percent y/y in 2012,” saysHancila. “We will have a modest GDPgrowth, as this year elections will be or-ganized, and authorities will pour moneyinto the economy,” she adds.

The acceleration of infrastructure proj-ects, increases in pensions and salaries,plus advances in EU-funded projectsshould help the economy avoid the blackclouds of recession.

Foreign direct investment totaled EUR1.9 billion in 2011, down 80 percent from theall-time high of 2008, according to datafrom the National Bank of Romania. How-ever, the country is focusing on public in-vestments and EU-funded projects to growthe economy. The government has set anambitious target of EUR 6 billion in EUfunds attraction. At the same time, the au-thorities want to lower the deficit to 3 per-cent of GDP on EAS standards this year,from 4.2 percent in 2011. ∫

Ovidiu Posirca

work from their money, as Mic.ro paidthem more than 240 days late.

Mic.ro stores were launched in Octo-ber 2010 with big ambitions for the future.

“If I have a wish, it is that the commerce im-ported piecemeal from the West shoulddie,” said Patriciu at the time. The busi-nessman previously announced EUR 200million of investments and plans to open1,000 fixed shops and 2,000 mobile unitsby the end of 2011.

Things, however, did not move asswiftly as he had initially hoped. In Sep-tember 2011 there were about 830 Mic.rostores and 58 Macro (former Minimaxstores) and Minimax outlets. The Macroand Minimax stores were operated byPatriciu’s Mercadia Holland company.

This January Mediafax newswire an-nounced that Patriciu was negotiating thesale of Mic.ro or a possible association

with 7 Eleven, the largest proximity storeoperator in the world.

“Negotiations with 7 Eleven started inthe autumn of 2011 and will be finished byMarch 2012. There is talk of a possible EUR60 million capital infusion into the Mic.ronetwork,” markets sources told Medi-afax at the time. 7 Eleven was founded in1927 in the USA and now operates 43,500stores in 16 countries.

Patriciu was named Romania’s richestbusinessman for the third consecutiveyear in 2011, according to the Forbes richlist, with a fortune estimated at EUR 2.2billion. With investments in media, energy,real estate, banking and IT&C, he mademost of his money by selling oil compa-ny Rompetrol to Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy operator KazMunaiGaz in2008. ∫

Simona Bazavan

Dinu Patriciu’s Mic.ro Retail, thecompany that owns the Mic.roproximity stores, filed for insol-

vency last week. Mic.ro outlets have beenfacing difficulties for several months nowdue to outstanding debts to suppliersand banks. Many of the shops were dis-playing empty shelves while others weresimply closed after the rent was not paid.

The announcement comes only twoweeks after Minimax Discount, a dis-count chain bought by the businessmanin 2010, also filed for insolvency.

Among the company’s suppliers thathave called for Mic.ro Retail to be liqui-dated are Romaqua Borsec, Dorna Lactate,Dr. Oetker, Vel Pitar, Ocean Fish andmore recently Tiriac Auto, the companyowned by local businessman Ion Tiriac.

Suppliers accuse Patriciu of having fi-nanced the expansion of the Mic.ro net-

GDP rose 2.5% in 2011, says the INS

6 NEWS www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

STOCK EXCHANGE

Property Fund net profit increased by 20 percent in 2011The net profit of the Property Fund

(FP) increased by 20 percent y/y toEUR 128 million in 2011, in the first

year since Franklin Templeton becamethe sole manager of the fund, and duringwhich time the FP was listed on theBucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). Share-holders will receive dividends worthEUR 120 million, which represents 96 per-cent of net profit.

The fund’s revenue increased by 7 per-cent year-on-year to EUR 145 million,while expenses decreased by 34 percentyear-on-year to EUR 17 million.

The next three quarters will bringpublic offerings from six energy compa-nies in which the FP has stakes. TheIPOs include Romgaz, evaluated at EUR280 million, Nuclearelectrica, at EUR 116million, and Hidroelectrica at EUR 384million, companies where the FP has 15percent, 10 percent and 20 percent stakesrespectively.

The FP is a closed-end fund and itsshares are currently being traded at a 50percent reduction, but hedge fund ElliottAssociates, whose stake in the fund isclose to 13 percent, wants Franklin Tem-pleton to start selling assets in the FP’sportfolio. At present, the fund manageris paid a quarterly fee of 0.47 percent ofits market capitalization. Selling assetswould guarantee the fund managers anadditional fee worth 1.5 percent of thesums distributed to shareholders through

Greg Konieczny, Franklin Templeton fund manager, expects the FP SPO to take placeon the Warsaw Stock Exchange in the first half of this year

to 2013, falling to 1 percent in 2014. The Property Fund will seek a second

listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange,where 38 successful IPOs have beenlaunched last year, and shareholders

should vote on this initiative by summer.The heirs of Nicolae Malaxa, the Ro-manian industrialist, whose stake in thefund is close to 7 percent, have already ex-pressed their agreement with the move.

Top shareholders are Elliott Associateshedge fund, which holds a 12.9 percentstake, fund management group City ofLondon Investment Management, on 7.2percent, and Georgia Palade van Dusenwith 6.5 percent.

Around 46 percent of the fund share-holders were foreign institutional in-vestors and 11 percent Romanian insti-tutions. The Ministry of Public Financeheld a 37 percent stake, but had no own-ership left as of December 2011.

The FP’s net asset value (NAV) totaledEUR 3.48 billion at end-January which in-cludes stakes in 73 companies, out ofwhich only 27 are listed on the BSE, witha market capitalization of EUR 1.6 billionon the stock exchange.

The number of FP traded shares was10.8 billion, representing 81 percent of theshare capital, while the average dailyturnover was EUR 4.8 million. The valueof traded shares was EUR 1.3 billion in thelast three weeks.

Around 86 percent of the NAV orEUR 2.9 billion is included in the energysector. Oil and gas represents 34 percent,electricity utilities generation 33 percentand electricity and gas utilities – transport,distribution and supply – account for 19percent. Top holdings include stakes inHidroelectrica, OMV Petrom, Romgaz,CE Turceni, Nuclearelectrica andTransgaz. ∫

Ovidiu Posirca

NEWS 7www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

AIRLINES

“Following last year’s natural selection onthe airline market, I believe the survivorsare safe now,” said Sherif Ussama, GM ofBlue Air, at a recent press conference.While internationally tough economicconditions have led to the collapse ofSpanair and Malev, locally, too, the mar-ket has undergone considerable struc-tural changes.

The most important was low-cost car-rier Wizz Air’s dethroning of national air-line Tarom last year after boosting its number of passengers by 28 percent y-o-y.

In total, Wizz Air reported 2.76 millionpassengers in Romania in 2011, whileTarom failed to reach its 2.4 million pas-senger target, flying only 2.19 million.

The local low-cost airline market isdominated by Hungarian Wizz Air and lo-cal Blue Air while international giantshaven’t yet managed to gain considerablemarket share. Some players had a hardtime in 2011. Easy Jet, the second largestlow-cost airline in Europe, announced itwould close its local operations. The air-line had operated flights to Milan andMadrid from Otopeni for four years, re-porting about 200,000 passengers in Ro-mania annually.

German Wings, the low-cost divisionof Lufthansa, will also scale down local op-erations this year. The airline announcedthat it had given up on flights on theBucharest-Stuttgart route and flights toBerlin will also cease, leaving only theBucharest-Koln route.

Wizz Air now claims a 66.4 percentshare of the Romanian low-cost market.The company says that the budget seg-ment will continue to be the main driverof passenger increases through the mainairports in Romania, but the market willcontinue to face challenges not only locallybut also at a regional European level –volatile fuel prices, the new carbon cer-tificates and the exchange rate, Balazs Var-ro, corporate communications manager atWizz Air, told BR.

The Hungarian carrier estimates thatthe low-cost segment has a 36 percentshare of the entire local market. This yearthe airline has plans to consolidate its po-sition in Romania, launch new routesfrom Bucharest to Budapest (March),Verona and Palma de Mallorca (June),and from Cluj to Budapest (April) and in-crease the frequencies on other routes.

The second biggest player on the mar-ket, Romanian carrier Blue Air, reportedfewer than 1.5 million passengers lastyear, down by about 200,000 against thepeak recorded in 2009. The decreasecomes after the airline reduced its flight ca-pacity by 15 percent in 2011, following a re-structuring program. Blue Air estimates aEUR 149.5 million turnover for 2011, down9 percent y-o-y, but said that it has man-aged to “slightly” increase its profitabili-ty. This year it is hoping for a turnover in-crease of 3 to 4 percent.

For 2012 Ussama has disclosed that hisairline has plans to expand to a neigh-

boring country but the only detail hegave was that it was not Hungary.

The carrier has also announced that itwill increase its number of flights on sev-eral routes. At peak season it will operate85 flights per week from Otopeni and an-other 36 from Bacau, its second hub. Forthis the carrier has acquired two more air-planes and a third should be added thissummer, taking Blue Air’s fleet to 10 air-craft.

From Baneasa to OtopeniAs of March 25 all low-cost flights to

and from Bucharest will be relocatedfrom their present hub at Baneasa toOtopeni, said representatives of theBucharest Airports National Company,according to media reports, adding thatbudget carriers will be forced to transferafter airport taxes at Baneasa are hiked.

Ussama said Blue Air was ready tomake the shift, commenting that thechange would not generate significanthikes in fares. “Some have spoken ofprice increases of EUR 4, 5 or 10. In fact,prices are set by supply and demand andon most of our routes they will not in-crease,” said the Blue Air GM. Blue Air rep-resentatives added that due to the in-crease in airport taxes at Baneasa it was nolonger cost-efficient to operate from there.

Wizz Air’s corporate communicationsmanager told BR last week that the com-pany “has not received any formal notifi-cation or confirmation about a possibleprice increase at Baneasa Airport, so itwould be premature to speculate aboutany potential scenarios”. He added that

“any increase in airport charges has a ma-jor pressure on ticket prices”.

Jozsef Varadi, Wizz Air’s CEO, saidlast November that should low-cost airlinebe forced to operate from Otopeni, the air-line would have no other choice but to in-crease fares and adjust flight capacitydue to the higher taxes at Otopeni. The car-rier has often denounced in recent yearswhat it considers to be a very high level ofairport taxes at Otopeni.

The battle for BudapestThe announcement that Malev had

succumbed earlier this year left a gap onthe local market too, which Wizz Air andTarom scrambled to fill.

On the Romanian market, Malev op-erated flights to Budapest from Bucharest,Cluj-Napoca and Targu Mures, havingabout 300,000 passengers in 2010. Com-patriot Wizz Air announced shortly afterthe news of the Hungarian flag carrier’s de-mise that it would expand its operationsfrom Budapest, including the launch offlights to Bucharest, while Tarom alsosaid it would increase its number of flightson this route.

Blue Air on the other hand said that it was not planning to expand in Hungaryas it wouldn’t be a good move for the airline, because Wizz Air and Ryanair hadgot in there first. ∫

Simona Bazavan

Low-cost carriers seek blueskies after turbulent 2011Wizz Air shook up the local airline market last year when it overtook national carrierTarom. BR surveys some of the other major changes on the market and budget car-riers’ plans for 2012.

8 BR AWARDS www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

∫ OVIDIU POSIRCA

SUSTAINABLEBUSINESS PRACTICESJudging criteria:– community involvement– the chain-reaction effect, meaning cre-ating more sustainable business around thecore activity

Carrefour: Filiera Calitatii (Quality Lines) ProgramSet up to sign direct supply contracts withlocal farmers, Carrefour’s Quality Lines pro-gram was extended last year with Ro-manian potato producer Agrico-M, whichsupplied about 20 percent of the potatoessold in 2011 by the retailer. Carrefour saidit intends to boost the share in the comingyears and sign deals with other local farm-ers. In 2010 Carrefour launched its first twoQuality Lines with local farmers for carrotsand trout. Through this program the re-tailer eliminates intermediaries, whilesupporting investment opportunities in lo-cal agriculture.

Raiffeisen Bank: Raiffeisen Comunitati programLaunched in 2009 as an annual offline fi-nancing program, Raiffeisen Comunitatideveloped into a blog supporting thebank’s ongoing dialog with the commu-nities where it operates and a contest-based financial program supporting the de-velopment and implementation of com-munity projects. The program was alsowidened to support the best NGO projects,hospitals and schools in communitieswhere there is at least one Raiffeisen Bankbranch, either financially, through vol-unteering or through knowledge dissem-ination. The maximum value of an allo-cated grant was EUR 5,000.

Raiffeisen Comunitati had four tar-gets: the internal audience made up of Raif-feisen Bank employees; local NGOs work-ing in the 210 urban communities in which

the bank is present; active bloggers; and thecommunities targeted by projects.

The grant program reported 391 proj-ect submissions, of which 156 applica-tions were accepted. Some 17 finalist proj-ects won financial support from Raif-feisen Bank.

Unilever South Central Europe:Global Sustainability ProgramThe FMCG producer launched last year aglobal sustainability program which alsoimpacted its local business. The program’smain objectives are to halve the environ-mental footprint of the firm’s products by2020 and source all its agricultural raw ma-terials sustainably.

The company has managed to reduceelectricity consumption after investingEUR 50 million in the past two years in ex-panding the production capacity of itsdetergents factory in Ploiesti by 30 percent.

RETAIL STRATEGYJudging criteria:– new aspects of the market entry/expan-sion strategy in relation to the industry seg-ment and the company’s previous strate-gy– investment in development against theachieved results– (marketing) strategies for developing acustomer base or retaining and growing the existing one: new ideas, cus-tomer-centric approach, results

Carrefour: Carrefour ExpressfranchisePart of its global multi-format strategy, Car-refour Romania launched last year its firstlocal proximity store through a franchiseagreement with local meat producer andretailer Angst, under the name of CarrefourExpress. There were three such stores atthe end of 2011. This year the scheme willbe extended to all 24 existing Angst outletsand any new ones that will be opened inthe meantime, according to Angst officials.

In addition to the three Carrefour Ex-press stores, the retailer also runs 46 su-

The seventh edition of the BR Awards, an event dedicated to rewarding local achievements in business, isclosing this week with a varied shortlist of top companies from across the sectors. This year’s event fea-tures revamped categories devised to recognize recent developments in the IT and online field, sustain-able business practices and retail. Below we outline the contenders, who will hear the jury’s decision in agala event this week. This year’s jury is made up of: Steven Van Groningen, president of the Foreign In-vestors’ Council (FIC) and CEO of Raiffeisen Bank, also president of the jury; Florin Pogonaru, chairman ofthe Romanian Businessmen Association (AOAR); Wargha Enayati, managing director, Regina Maria, thePrivate Healthcare Network; Emma Popa Radu, managing director, Advent International Office inBucharest; Aneta Bogdan, managing partner, Brandient; Dan Bulucea, country manager, Google Romania;and Oana Petroff, managing director, Mindshare Romania.

BR AWARDS 2012 shortlist

permarkets and 25 hypermarkets in Ro-mania.

eMag: online retail strategyLast year, eMag launched Marketplace, thefirst online platform in Romania to hostvarious retailers. On this platform, any ofthe retailers can promote and sell theirproducts to eMag clients, with the productrange, promotions and logistics of the or-ders being dealt with directly on the plat-form by the individual retailer. eMag mar-ketplace has since seen the addition of newcategories of products and services such astoys, books, music and even insurancespolicies.

eMag, along with Flanco, also pio-neered the Black Friday initiative, whichbrought the firm sales of EUR 8 million injust one day. According to the study Su-perbrands 2011, eMag is the most recog-nized brand on the electro-IT segment. Itis also the largest online retailer of IT&Cproducts, with seven showrooms inBucharest, Iasi, Ploiesti, Cluj, Timisoara,Constanta and Craiova.

Mega Image: outlet location strategyThroughout 2011, Mega Image steppedup its expansion pace, opening 33 newstores and taking its national network to105 outlets under the Mega Image andShop&Go brands, the latter also havingbeen launched last year. The Belgian re-tailer now owns the largest supermarketnetwork in Bucharest.

In order to support its expansion pacein 2011 Mega Image invested in opening itsown 40,000-sqm logistics center in PopestiLeordeni, following an investment of overEUR 20 million.

Murfatlar: Crama MurfatlarThe largest wine producer in Romania de-cided to invest in its own retail wine storenetwork, Crama Murfatlar, which reachedmore than 100 shops country-wide in 2011.The shops are run under a franchise schemein partnership with local entrepreneurs.

Sales reached 8.1 million liters of wine,worth EUR 14.5 million. The companyplans to expand to 150 outlets by the endof 2012 and hopes that the stores will en-

able it to double its turnover in two years’time.

ONLINE STRATEGY FORBUSINESS DEVELOPMENTJudging criteria:– innovative character of the online proj-ect with reference to the local market andthe respective industry– the response generated by the project interms of revenue, community building,public awareness

Citibank: Smart BankingBranchCitibank developed a complex digital bank-ing platform in Romania, for corporateand retail consumers. The lender openedits first digital smart branch locally last year,unique in the Europe and Middle East re-gion, but also developed a smartphone-friendly banking application, all part of thesmart banking strategy rolled out by Citi.The launch of a co-branded card withVodafone and a permanent chat service arepart of Citibank’s efforts to improve its cus-tomers’ banking services experience.

eMag: Black Friday InitiativeeMag pioneered the Black Friday conceptin Romania, the day after Thanksgivingwhen promotions kick off the Christmasshopping season. A total of 1.2 million Ro-manians accessed the eMAG website thatday, which represents over 5 percent of theRomanian population. In total, 100,000products were ordered and EUR 8 millionin sales achieved in just one day.

Raiffeisen Bank: Studentocardonline platformRaiffeisen Bank promoted its Studentocardamong university students, attractingaround 35,000 customers by end-August2011. The online channel studentbank.roaccounted for 35 percent of total applica-tions for the debit card, registering traffic

BR AWARDS 9www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

of 450,000 visitors and 1.5 million pageviews. The lender was able to attract morethan 9,000 fans to the Facebook page spe-cially designed for this program.

Vodafone: Manager SRL onlinevideo gameVodafone Romania carved out a niche inthe online sector by launching last yearManager SRL. This marked several pre-mieres, as it was the first online interactivemovie campaign in Romania, the country’sfirst business game experience and also thefirst Vodafone OpCo to launch a full role-play interaction to this extent.

So far, the website has registered over100,000 unique visitors who have viewedover 700,000 video scenes. As many as10,000 players shared their Manager diplo-ma on social media while 11,000 wanted toreceive info about Vodafone’s businessproducts (which is optional). Overall, 95percent of contacted users said they hadfound the experience positive or highly pos-itive, while 90 percent found the campaignto be innovative and enjoyed the experi-ence.

INNOVATION INTECHNOLOGY Judging criteria:– innovative characteristics of the product– local R&D activity

Bitdefender: security and an-tivirus product portfolio2011 was a year of premieres for Bitde-fender as the company launched the 2012generation of products targeting a globalmarket: Total Security 2012, Internet Se-curity 2012, Antivirus Plus 2012, as well asa free anti-virus solution launched exclu-sively in Romania.

Three of the most important inde-pendent testing organizations in the worldvoted Bitdefender’s consumer productsthe number one choice (in terms of inter-net security), last year. Having estab-lished itself as a technological leader inconsumer endpoint protection technolo-gies, Bitdefender took a quantum leap, bytargeting an emerging enterprise market:virtualization security.

As an aspiring provider of holistic se-curity solutions, the firm launched anentirely new public/private/hybrid cloudplatform supporting endpoint securityacross physical, virtual and mobile infra-structures. With a team of 623 people, Bit-defender keeps its innovation guns athome, as 99 percent of the research is doneby Romanian-based teams.

Renault Technology: DaciaDuster SUV modelRenault Technologie Roumanie (RTR)was inaugurated in 2007, quickly becom-ing Renault’s largest engineering centeroutside France, employing almost 2,500people in three locations: Bucharest (hometo its automotive engineering and designoffices), Titu (testing center) and Mioveni(technical support to Dacia plant).

Last year saw the completion of theTitu Technical Center project following aEUR 166 million investment. RTR is the en-gineering hub for all vehicles developed onthe Logan platform and the R&D center re-ported a turnover of approximately EUR100 million in 2010.

The Duster, Dacia’s SUV model, whichis the most important project developed

by RTR in Romania, accounted for al-most 50 percent of the local carmaker’ssales in 2011.

Televoice: Evolio rangeLast year, Romanian company Televoice,launched the Evolio Neura tablet PC withAndroid OS, which it positioned as “aniPad killer,” claiming it offers more at a sim-ilar size and for a fair price. The overall in-vestment in the project was in excess ofUSD 1 million.

The device was designed in Romaniabut the hardware was manufactured inShenzen, China. Other launches includedthe EvoTab1 and EvoTab2 tablet PC as wellas the Evobook2 eReader.

Televoice focuses on innovative prod-ucts based on open standards and plat-forms that are competitive on the inter-national market as well. In 2011, it camethird in the tablet PC sales race in Roma-nia, after Apple and Samsung.

Visual Fan: Allview rangeVisual Fan, a Romanian-based companyoperating since 2002, sells IT&C prod-ucts under the Allview brand. In 2011, theproducer launched the first dual SIMsmartphone under a Romanian brand,PC tablets – such as the AllDro Speedtablet – and smart TV boxes based on An-droid OS.

For this, Allview developed hardwareand software systems and integratedthem in the DroSeries product range. Al-lview also introduced the Selfcare appli-cation, a portal pre-installed on everydual SIM mobile phone and PC tablet un-der its brand.

INTERNATIONALEXPANSIONJudging criteria:– scope and reach of the international pres-ence– results achieved on foreign markets:(share in the company’s financial per-formance), products introduced, opera-tional use of international locations

BitdefenderBitdefender’s international expansion as-pirations materialized last year into asuite of products thrown onto the globalmarket, new offices opened in foreignlocations, a rebranding campaign and,overall, a more aggressive leader-orient-ed approach to the global market. Tenyears after it came into being, Bitdefend-er completed a two-year, EUR 1 million re-branding process that reflected its Ro-manian roots and global aspirations to be-come world leader on the security solu-tions market.

Also last year, Bitdefender added a newinternational office, located in Dubai, tothe list of two offices in the United States,one in Silicon Valley and another in FortLauderdale, Florida. It also has offices inGreat Britain, Germany and Spain and inaddition a support center in Chile with ateam that serves clients in South Ameri-ca.

Floating on the stock exchange re-mains a priority for the company, whichhas 623 employees. It last year reached the400-million clients mark and aims to gainanother 100 million by the end of the year.

SivecoSoftware and consultancy provider Sive-

co is present in 17 countries in Central andEastern Europe, the CIS, North Africa andthe Middle East, and has 20 ongoing con-tracts for the European Commission.

In 2011, Siveco signed 224 nationaland international contracts in fields suchas eBusiness, eLearning, eCustoms,eHealth, eAgriculture and eNuclear. Thecompany is in an expansion mode that willsee it establish a presence in 50 countriesin four years from now, as its long-termmission is to become a global software in-tegrator. Siveco’s portfolio of clients has in-creased to 1,400 due to new contractsabroad.

TotalsoftRomanian company Totalsoft dates backto 1994 and is now part of the Global Fi-nance investment group. With offices inBulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Qatar, Total-soft announced at end-2011 the opening ofits first office in a Western European coun-try, Austria, which caters to the CentralEastern European region and German-speaking countries. A company with 490employees which posted a turnover ofnearly EUR 26 million in 2011, Totalsoftsaw a 30 percent y-o-y increase in inter-national revenues.

One major achievement in 2011 was itsselection as project management con-sulting provider for the biggest project inthe world – the construction of the JubailRefinery in Saudi Arabia. It also continuedthe Charisma solution roll-out in multi-national companies, with implementa-tions in new countries for its portfolio,such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Slo-vakia and even Senegal.

TeamNetLast year, TeamNet was ranked among thetop ten companies in the Deloitte CentralEurope Technology FAST 50 ranking forthe fourth year in a row, with a 59 percentgrowth in sales y-o-y, the only Romaniancompany so garlanded. TeamNet, whichdates back to 2001 and employs around350 people, posted a turnover of EUR 32million in 2011.

The company has offices abroad inBrussels and Chisinau and opened a newoffice in Belgrade in 2011. It was alsoamong the top ten IT suppliers in the Re-public of Moldova.

BEST EMPLOY-MENT INITIATIVEJudging criteria:– number of appointments and quality ofthe jobs created– effort to retain workforce despite difficulteconomic environment

Endava: comprehensive em-ployment programLast year British IT company Endava,which has three delivery centers in Ro-mania (in Cluj, Iasi and Bucharest), an-nounced an extensive employment pro-gram. Its headcount in Romania hiked by33 percent in 2011, reaching 340 people intotal.

The company organized Endava CareerDays, developed a new recruitment pro-gram, a new line management approachand a talent management strategy tostreamline its operations. The recruit-ment process that started last year will goon in 2012 as well: in the first half of 2012,250 more people will be added to the

roster. Endava has been present on the Ro-manian market since 2006 and posted aEUR 9.2 million turnover in 2011.

Intel: hired highly trained em-ployees for its R&D centerLast year, the Intel software developmentcenter more than tripled its initial jobs fore-cast, hiring over 50 people as software en-gineers, quality engineers, software engi-neering managers and interns.

The team also moved to a new per-manent office, with state-of-the-art facil-ities for R&D. The products that the R&Demployees have worked on in the past yearare used in the current Intel mobile plat-forms introduced to the market this year.

Siveco: doubled the number ofemployeesSet up 20 years ago, the company doubledits number of employees in 2011, reaching1,200 people as a result of 224 national andinternational contracts it signed last year,including for European Commission in-stitutions.

In Romania, the company also openedtwo more work points in Brasov andPloiesti, on top of its existing ones inCluj, Timisoara, Constanta, Craiova andGalati. Recruitment will continue thisyear too, as Siveco plans to hire about 150-200 people. In 2011, the firm saw itsturnover grow by 12 percent to EUR 67 mil-lion.

Sfantul Constantin & ReginaMaria private hospital campus:hired highly skilled medicalpersonnel Regina Maria opened a medical campus inBrasov, following a EUR 4.2 million in-vestment, on the premises of the SfantulConstantin private hospital, a EUR 20million investment by Teo Health inau-gurated last March following . The 3,000-sqm campus was built in partnershipwith Teo Health and includes an obstetricsand gynecology unit, a pediatrics unit, apolyclinic and a laboratory. Over 65 doc-tors were hired, along with other type ofmedical personnel.

BEST BUSINESSINITIATIVE IN SMEsJudging criteria:– innovation of the business idea– achievement within the industry andlooking at the resources involved

Artmark auction houseArtmark currently leads the local art mar-ket with a 77 percent share. The companypositions itself as a one-stop-shop for artenthusiasts, encompassing an auctionhouse, gallery and cultural center, and of-fering a wide range of services from ad-visory and guarantees to restoration, eval-uation, private sales, logistics and relatedservices. Last year Artmark launched theArt Consecrated Index, a monitoring toolof the weekly evolution of the art marketfor the 100 most representative Romanianartists.

In 2011 Artmark also released the Art-mark Live application, which facilitatesreal-time bidding over the internet, andopened the Art Shop Dependent de Art,specialized in contemporary fine arts anddecorative arts.

10 BR AWARDS www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

The firm reported a turnover of EUR 12million last year, and a EUR 530,000 profitfor the first half of 2011.

BOOKbyte digital libraryThe 28-year-old entrepreneurs Anca andRadu Apostoae are the owners of BOOK-byte, the first digital library with a full DRMintegrated solution. BOOKbyte is focusedon eBook distribution, eBook softwaredevelopment and eReader retail.

Launched in November 2010, the ven-ture focused last year on developing astrong product package, with end-to-endsolutions for clients and publishers. Atthe time of the launch only around 30books were available for download. At theend of 2011 more than 400 titles wereavailable from 10 Romanian publishers,most of them in a digital format for the firsttime. Last year BOOKbyte developed part-nerships for ePub conversion and eBookcreation services. It also became the officialimporter in Romania for Booken (a FrencheReader brand) and launched the Orizon,the world’s thinnest eReader.

F64 Photo Store Marian Alecsiu, currently general manag-er, and Daniela Becheru, managing direc-tor, started F64 at the beginning of the 90s,initially as a small photography studio. F64officially opened last year its flagship storein Bucharest’s Piata Unirii, the largest pho-to store in South-Eastern Europe and oneof the largest worldwide.

The showroom has a surface of 1,300sqm and a capacity to display approxi-mately 5,000 products, selected from arange of 100 brands. F64 forecasted an an-nual turnover of EUR 14 million for 2011,which represent a 23 percent growth year-on-year. In 2012, the figure is expected toreach EUR 17.5 million.

Zebra Pay: instant paymentnetworkFounded by Lucian Butnaru in October2009, ZebraPay is an instant payment ter-minal company conceived as the first localmodel of one-stop-shops. Last year, ZebraPay made USD 1.5 million of investments inits infrastructure, taking the self-servicekiosk network to national level. At theend of 2011, the firm had installed 500 ter-minals in 30 cities across the country, with15 services available at these points. ZebraPay has 22 employees and posted aturnover of USD 750,000 in 2011.

ENTREPRENEUROF THE YEARJudging criteria:– development of the business over the pasttwo years– unique characteristics of the business– results achieved against investment andthe overall industry

Dragos Atanasiu: EurolinesDragos Anastasiu, founder of the Eurolinesgroup 17 years ago, struck a deal in 2011 withGerman company TUI Travel under which25 of the local operator’s agencies will be re-branded as TUI Travel Center. The agencieswill sell TUI products under the concept ofTravel Hypermarket. “TUI did not have adistribution network in Romania whilewe did not have a brand. We have nowjoined forces,” said Anastasiu. The Euro-lines Group, which has 500 employees,posted a turnover of EUR 46 million in 2011,

a 22 percent hike. As part of the partnership,Eurolines Group has acquired DanubiusTravel, more than 70 percent of whichbelonged to the TUI group.

Alexandru Baldea and ManuelaPlapcianu: Artmark Manuela Plapcianu, along with her partnerAlexandru Baldea, are running one of themost interesting entrepreneurial ventureson the local market. Alexandru Baldeafounded the Artmark galleries in July 2008together with Radu Boroianu, benefitingfrom financing from a Dutch investmentfund. Baldea is a founding member of theArtSociety Cultural Center and teaches atthe Art History department within theBucharest University since 2010.

Plapcianu took over in February 2009asCEO of Artmark, a business in which sheowns 20 percent. An art collector since 1985,Plapcianu has over 15 years of experiencein management and leadership positionsacross the financial sector. She is an expertin financial markets, M&As, retail and cor-porate banking, crisis management andother fields. She holds an EMBA Asebussfrom the Washington and Columbia NYuniversities.

Dragos Petrescu: Trotter PrimDragos Petrescu is a name strongly linkedto the local restaurant industry. The Ro-manian entrepreneur owns shares in CityGrill network of eateries and the managerof Caru’ Cu Bere.

2011 proved a good year for the busi-nessman. Petrescu launched three newbrands on the local market – Hanu’ Berar-ilor, Cantina Sport Bar and the Bundetotshaorma shop. He managed to increasesales by 16 percent and open five newunits including a City Cafe unit in theOtopeni airport, Hanu’ Berarilor Elena Lu-pescu, the second restaurant under theHanu’ Berarilor brand, and the BackWerkbakery on Magheru Blvd.

Ioan Popa: Transavia Ioan Popa, the owner of the main share-holder of local poultry producer TransaviaGroup, has managed in the past 20 years totake the business to market leader position.At the end of 2011 the company had morethan 1,300 employees and a production ca-pacity of more than 50,000 tons of poultryper year. Due to the increasing price of fod-der, in 2011 it expanded its business to cropproduction. About EUR 10 million hasbeen invested into the new division. Popahopes to reach a total surface of 10,000hectares of land for cereal cultivation. 

Iulian Stanciu: Network oneDistribution, eMAG and FlancoIulian Stanciu created Asesoft (with Se-bastian Ghita) when he was still a studentat the Academy of Economic Studies inBucharest. At the end of 2011, Asesoft Dis-tribution rebranded as Network One Dis-tribution (NOD), with ambitions to be-come an international player and expandin the CEE region.

Stanciu is president of the NOD board,with a EUR 180 million turnover in 2011, up24 percent y-o-y. He is also manager andmajor shareholder in Dante International,the company which runs the largest onlineretailer in Romania, eMag. Additionally, heis a major shareholder in IT&C retailerFlanco, which posted a turnover of EUR 110million in 2011.

Camelia Sucu: Piata de grosAfter investing in the furniture business, lo-cal businesswoman Camelia Sucu is putting

her faith in agriculture as one of the sectorsthat will bring considerable returns in theyears to come. She bought Piata de gros –a wholesale market for agricultural prod-ucts in Bucharest which is supposed tobring together producers and retailers – in2010 for EUR 5.5 million. Last October sheannounced plans to invest between EUR 10million and EUR 15 million in modernizingand expanding the project. Sucu also in-vested last year in a cattle farm in Tran-sylvania. The businesswoman owns theClass Living luxury furniture retailer and co-founded furniture company Mobexpert.

DEAL OF THEYEARJudging criteria:– financial details of the transaction– impact within the industry/ local businessscene– novel elements characteristic to the trans-action

Ameropa Holding buysAzomures and Chimpex Swiss grain and fertilizer trader Ameropaacquired Romanian fertilizer producerAzomures and Chimpex and Chimpex, aharbor operator in Constanta, both listed onthe Stock Exchange, in a deal worth be-tween EUR 100 and 275 million, accordingto media sources. Azomures reported aturnover of RON 1.6 billion last year, and aprofit of RON 405 million.

Erste buys four SIFs’ shares inBCRAustrian Erste Group Bank increased itsstake in BCR to 89 percent after acquiringa 24 percent share package from financialinvestment firms SIF Banat Crisana, SIFTransilvania, SIF Muntenia and SIF Moldo-va. The transaction totaled EUR 389 million,involving a cash payment and a shareswap between Erste and BCR, based on anaverage price of EUR 17.6 per share in July20111-January 2012 and an averageEUR/RON rate of 4.3143 in the same peri-od. Erste consolidated its presence in CEElast year by achieving a maximum equityinterest in BCR.

MetLife buys AlicoThe American group MetLife has boughtthe divisions of the insurance company Avi-va from Romania, Hungary and the CzechRepublic. The transaction will be com-pleted this year after regulators from Ro-mania and the United States approve it. Themove is in line with the strategy of focus-ing on large markets that Aviva announcedin November 2010. Aviva is present on thelocal market through Aviva Life Insuranceand Aviva Private Pensions. The takeoverwill be done through Alico Asigurari Ro-mania, a company that it is part of MetLife,along with Alico.

NEPI buys City Business CenterSouth African New Europe Property In-vestments has acquired City Business Cen-ter, three adjoining office buildings inTimisoara, covering 27,150 sqm, from busi-nessman Ovidiu Sandor. Although thedeal was sealed this January, negotiationswere carried out in 2011. The acquisition in-volved a share transfer from Sandor to NEPItotaling EUR 16.5 million. The office build-ings have a value of EUR 45.6 million.

NEPI was listed on the Bucharest StockExchange last summer and has invested

around EUR 250 million in real estate in thelast two years. The fund’s assets totaledEUR 360 million at end-2011.

BUSINESSLEADER OF THE YEARJudging criteria:– remarkable individual (entrepreneurial)or group results achieved within the con-text of a specific industry (turnover/salesagainst the company's previous perform-ance and industry average)– standing and presence in the companyand industry community– resources and innovation involved inachieving the results

Inaki Berroeta: Vodafone RomaniaIn December 2010 Spaniard Inaki Berroetawas named CEO of Vodafone Romania, thesecond biggest operator on the local mar-ket, with 8.32 million customers after thethird quarter of the financial year 2011/2012.The operator was ranked number one in thelist of Top Social Brands 2011. During hisleadership Vodafone gave a strong push onthe mobile internet segment, posting a 75percent boost in its customer base and a 58percent hike in its revenues on this segmenty-o-y. Last year, the operator was certifiedby independent auditor P3 communica-tions as having the best performingGSM/UMTS/CDMA network for mobiledata in Romania. Vodafone is also leader ofthe business sector in Romania, with a 50percent share of the market of mobilecommunication services for companies.

Cornelia Coman: ING Life Insurance RomaniaCornelia Coman has been at the helm ofING Life Insurance for more than threeyears, striving to keep the insurer in aleading position despite a difficult market.ING has rolled out customer feedback andpersonal financial plans, while upskillingtheir consultants and sales force. Last year,the firm increased its life insurance and vol-untary pension sales by 11 percent, re-porting gross written premiums of RON 544million. In addition, the net assets of thetwo voluntary pension funds reached RON200 million.

Mariana Gheorghe: OMVPetrom Mariana Gheorghe has been CEO of OMVPetrom, the largest oil and gas group inSouth-Eastern Europe, since 2006. Underher mandate, the group has invested overEUR 6.6 billion in modernization and in-creased efficiency. In 2010 the group’sturnover was EUR 4.4 billion, while its EBITwas EUR 709 million.

This February, US Exxon Mobil andOMV Petrom, which teamed up in 2008,made a historic breakthrough by finding gasdeposits in the Black Sea, during explo-ration works that started last year. Prior to joining the group, Gheorghe workedfor the European bank for Reconstructionand Development (EBRD) for 13 years, fo-cusing on the oil and gas sector.

Robert Rekkers: Banca TransilvaniaUntil he stepped down recently, RobertRekkers had been one of the longest-serv-ing managers in the Romanian banking in-

BR AWARDS 11www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

dustry, working as general manager atBanca Transilvania for almost a decade.During his tenure the lender became thethird biggest bank in Romania and man-aged to increase its value on the stock ex-change from EUR 55 million in 2002 to EUR1.7 billion in 2007.

Under his watch BT was always a tar-get for financial groups planning to enterthe local market. His arrival at BT coincidedwith the drawing up of a new businessstrategy by the management board of BTthat involved three aspects: consolidatingthe bank, launching the BT FinancialGroup and repositioning the lender on theRomanian banking system.

Irina Socol: SivecoIrina Socol is one of the pioneer business-women in Romanian IT, having started thesoftware and consultancy provider Sivecoin 1992 with her husband, AlexandruRadasanu. Socol is now CEO and presidentof a company which has doubled its head-count to 1,200 employees and reached aturnover of EUR 67 million in 2011, up 12percent y-o-y. Siveco’s footprint reaches 17countries in Central and Eastern Europe,the CIS, North Africa and the Middle East.

Last year, the firm signed 224 new lo-cal and international multi-annual projects.It will provide software development andmaintenance services worth EUR 10 mil-lion to six organizations in the EuropeanUnion. Socol’s ambition is to turn Sivecointo a global software integrator which willbe present in 50 countries in four years.Listing the firm on the stock exchange ina few years’ time is still an option.

Florin Talpes: BitdefenderOne of the pioneers of the software in-dustry in Romania and a math graduate-turned-Silicon Valley entrepreneur, FlorinTalpes has transformed his flagship com-pany Bitdefender into a major player on theglobal security market. Eleven years sinceits inception, Talpes’s success is measuredin 400 million clients and a worldwidepresence in over 100 countries.

In 2011, Bitdefender’s consumer prod-ucts were voted the number one choice (interms of internet security) by three of themost important independent testing or-ganizations in the world. Talpes’s entre-preneurial journey started in 1990 asfounder of Softwin, one of the most promi-nent home-grown Romanian softwareand services companies.

He also set down the basis of the Ro-manian Association of the Software Serv-ices Industry (ANIS), leading a team to de-velop the National Strategy for SoftwareServices in Romania.

EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESSJudging criteria:– innovative character and/or developmentachievement/potential of a business developed locally– performance achieved base on the prin-ciples of customer focus, stakeholder value, process management

BitdefenderLast year, three of the most important in-dependent testing organizations in theworld voted Bitdefender’s consumer prod-ucts the number one choice (in terms of in-ternet security). The company’s 2012 rangeof security products also hit the shelves last

year, including a free anti-virus editionlaunched exclusively in Romania. Lastbut not least, a pivotal change in Bitde-fender’s philosophy took place, as it em-braced a more aggressive corporate iden-tity which should help it achieve its worldleader target.

A new logo for the “defenders of thenew digital world”, the Dacian wolf-drag-on, and the slogan “Awake” were adoptedduring a EUR 1 million rebranding cam-paign. Bitdefender has reached the 400million clients mark, and has a presence in100 countries all over the world. Despite be-ing a global company, it keeps its R&D op-erations at home, with 99 percent of its re-search done by Romanian-based teams.

Group Renault RomaniaCar manufacturer Dacia, Romania’s lead-ing exporter, sold around 30,000 units do-mestically on a declining auto market lastyear, but compensated through exports toFrance, Germany and Italy, where it soldaround 160,000 vehicles last year.

Dacia has used the research center setup in Romania by Renault, which devel-oped parts of the Duster, the SUV modelthat accounted for 47 percent of the brand’stotal sales in 2011. Some 200,000 Dacia carswere manufactured at the Mioveni plant,while 1.5 million cars were produced onX90 platform. The Renault Group Roma-nia is focusing on a complete car chain.

eMagThe largest online retailer in Romania,eMag, has been building up steam for thepast ten years. eMag was one of the ini-tiators of last year’s Black Friday cam-paign, bringing to Romania a shopping-at-a-big-discount concept that has been suc-cessfully tested on Western markets. Theresult was that in just one day, the firm’swebsite was visited by 1.2 million people,more than 5 percent of the Romanianpopulation. Sales on that day reached anunprecedented peak of EUR 8 million,and 100,000 products.

Also last year, eMag moved its office toSwan Office and Technology Park where itrented 2,700 sqm, while its showroomand service continue to operate at GrantMall. The retailer posted a EUR 62 millionturnover in H1, 2011, with EUR 150 millionestimated for the whole of the year, 50 per-cent up on 2010.

OrangeOrange kept its leader position on the Ro-manian telecom market, with 10.18 millioncustomers and EUR 698 million in rev-enues after the first nine months of 2011.Additionally, the operator saw a 43 percentquarterly boost in its mobile internet base,reaching 4.3 million clients. Orange putEUR 110 million into network expansion,coverage of rural areas, new products andcustomer experience improvement. It alsobudgeted investments of up to EUR 600million for 2011-2015.

Last year, the mobile operator kickedoff an extensive project modernizing itscommunication network and supplyingbroadband services to rural areas, to becompleted by end-2012. It also launchedhigh-speed mobile internet in Bucharestand several other large cities, allowing43.2 Mbps download speeds and 5.76Mbps upload speeds.

Meanwhile, the operator revampedits network of stores and launched the Or-ange Care Center for mobile phones. InJuly, 2011, Frenchman Jean-Francois Fal-lacher was appointed at the helm of OrangeRomania.

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“optimum capacities” for Solar energyprojects, in order to reduce the costper MW installed).

6. Solar energy is easier to fit intothe gridTrue. For several different reasons.For example the capacity of the solarprojects is smaller, thus making themeasier to fit almost anywhere and buildthem close to large energy consumers.But there are also many other techni-cal aspects that confirm this state-ment.

7. By investing in Romanian solar en-ergy production, you benefit from avery high price and profitabilityLie. The production of solar energy inRomania is “rewarded” with 6 greencertificates per MWh. This means thatalmost 85% of the total income is re-lated to the volatility of the green cer-tificates’ price. The estimated income /MWh that an investor can reach is verygood indeed. But don’t expect miracles, unless you are willing to risk.If you choose to stay on the safe side (for example, by using PPAcontracts in your calculations) the re-sult will be “attractive” but not “in-credible”.

8. Prices for new solar energy proj-ects in Romania can be higher than inthe majority of European countriesnowadays.True. Most of the European countrieshave either stopped giving subventionsto new solar energy projects or offeran axed feeding tariff, which is reducedevery 6 months. The Romanianscheme offers a good IRR at the mini-mum price scenario, which may in-crease a lot if the prices of greencertificates remain high.

Solar energy in Romania is a promis-ing field for investments, but I wouldsuggest you calculate “without hopesand dreams”. Like this you will behappy with the total outcome.

PS. Upon request, I can provide youwith a short memo for the subventionscheme applicable to all renewableprojects in Romania, solar included.

Ilias Papageorgiadis CEO More RealEstate Services (www.more-group.eu%29

4 lies and 4 truths for the Romanian solar energy sector

Ilias Papageorgiadis

12 LINKS www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

∫ OTILIA HARAGA

The stated purpose of the Anti-Counter-feiting Trade Agreement, signed so far bythe United States, Australia, Japan, Mexi-co, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore,South Korea, Switzerland and the EuropeanUnion, is to establish international stan-dards for the enforcement of intellectualproperty rights and eradicate counterfeitgoods and copyright infringement on theinternet. Twenty-two European Unionmember states, including Romania, signedACTA at the end of January 2011 in Tokyo.

In order to be put into practice in the EUspace, the treaty must be ratified by allmember states and approved by the Euro-pean Parliament (EP), and should be put tothe vote in the EP no later than June.

However, countries like Germany, theNetherlands, Estonia, Slovakia and Cyprushave refused to give their consent to ACTA.Even more seriously, the European Courtof Justice dealt ACTA a heavy blow inmid-February, ruling that a social networkcannot be required to install an anti-pira-cy filtering system. Meanwhile, countriesthat had already signed the treaty, such asPoland, Latvia and the Czech Republic,have got cold feet, after massive protestsurged officials to reconsider. As recently aslast week, Romania’s neighbor, Bulgaria,

also announced it would suspend the rat-ification of the agreement, followed dayslater by Lithuania.

In Romania, people are still waiting fortheir politicians to take an official position,with the newly elected prime minister,

Razvan Mihai Ungureanu, announcing lastweek that the government would have “avery consistent viewpoint” on this, with-out giving any clue as to what it might be.

Romanians are keeping their fingerscrossed, since Razvan Mustea, the newminister of communications, has admitted,

ACT(A) interrupted: publicpressure threatens treatyAs opposition against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) builds in vari-ous EU member states, the question is what chances the treaty stands of being rati-fied in its current form. While some EU countries have already suspended the ratifi-cation, several Romanian cities have also joined in the rallies. BR asks internet pun-dits what are ACTA’s pitfalls and what outcome they predict.

“ACTA has ambiguities that allow suspicionsregarding abuses that could be committedby the authorities.”

Accusations were flying that the sign-ing process of the treaty was kept toohush-hush, both at European level and inthe signatory EU member states. Second-ly, concerns are being voiced that the textis ambiguous and leaves plenty of room forthe abuse of fundamental rights.

The first accusation has been rejectedby the European Commission, which statesthat the “negotiations of the Anti-Coun-terfeiting Trade Agreement, like all othergovernment negotiations, were held in aconfidential setting; however that doesnot mean that the negotiating process wasnot a very open one. The European Com-mission regularly consulted the EuropeanParliament during the negotiations, sharedall draft negotiating texts with members ofthe European Parliament, and invited, metand debriefed NGOs, academia and repre-sentatives from political parties from thebeginning of the negotiations.”

But some disagree. “It is hard to explainwhy the authorities were so secretive andno sufficient debate was organized on thismatter, since we are dealing with a docu-ment that could fundamentally changethe way we use the internet,” Sergiu Biris,general manager of Trilulilu, a video shar-

ing site, tells BR. Bogdan Manolea, executive director

of the Association for Technology and theInternet, adds, “Romania had no repre-sentative in the negotiations because the EUrepresented the member states, which is aquestionable procedure when what is ne-gotiated is beyond the community acquis.”

Blogger Camil Stoenescu (http://stoe-nescu.eu/) attributes this to “ignorancerather than willful secret-mania” from theRomanian authorities, adding that “the dis-cussions over ACTA were ‘discreet’ at least(if not ‘secret’) and the EU was represent-ed as a distinct political entity. Romania didnot have a distinct voice on this context.Even the European Parliament complainedabout the lack of transparency of negotia-tions that preceded the signing of ACTA.”

On the other hand, it is also true that Ro-mania’s reaction came later than in othercountries, but this may have some context-specific reasons. “The excuse would be,perhaps naturally, that at the time whenpeople in Poland were going out on thestreets against ACTA, in Romania theywere taking to the street for other reasons.The period that followed was rather con-fusing, culminating in the prime minister’sresignation,” Dragos Stanca, managingpartner Q2M, tells BR.

There are many voices alleging that thereason negotiations happened behindclosed doors is that the text has the po-tential to drastically curtail freedom ofspeech and privacy.

“The matter of online copyright protec-tion and intellectual theft is rather specificand cannot be regulated in the same wayas the counterfeiting of Louis Vuitton bags.Of course, discussions should not take anabsurd turn: yes, intellectual propertyrights must be protected,” says Stanca.

Nevertheless, it was not the fightagainst counterfeiting that prompted peo-ple to take to the streets in protest. IfACTA is adopted as it is, “the consequenceswill be drastic,” predicts Mugur Patrascu,managing partner of iLeo. “This opens aPandora ’s Box and things cannot go in apositive direction. It seems that the risks arehigher than the benefits. The risks areconnected to the control of personal in-formation, the supreme stake from now on.”

He adds, “The public can only losefrom this. Those who stand to gain arethose who wish to protect their intellectualproperty rights. So far, the latter haveproven that they are more united andmore professional in pursuing their inter-ests,” adds Patrascu.

Article 27, paragraph 4, is one of thethorniest issues in the text. It implies thatinternet providers must act as prosecutor,judge and jury, monitoring internet users’actions and deciding whether the infor-mation they upload or download is pirat-ed or not. Additionally, if a record or filmstudio suspects foul play, the internetprovider may be compelled to divulgeusers’ personal data to them. These firmscan then go to court with the respective in-formation, without users suspecting whatis happening behind their back.

Just on the basis of suspicion, the in-ternet provider can disconnect the userfrom the internet. Users can even get acriminal record. These stipulations haveraised multiple concerns about the poten-tial abuse of fundamental rights and the vi-olation of privacy.

“On the privacy issue, this is a rather longdiscussion. When over 4 million Romani-ans post their family albums on Facebook,the concept of privacy starts to be re-shaped and gains new meanings,” says

“ACTA opens a Pandora ’sBox and things cannot goin a positive direction. Itseems that the risks arehigher than the benefits.The risks are connectedto the control of personalinformation, the supremestake from now on.”Mugur Patrascu, managing partner iLeo

LINKS 13www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

Stanca. But do internet providers possess the

technical capacity to filter and processsuch a huge amount of data? Pundits askedby BR seem to think they do.

“If we look at the way content and in-ternet access can be censored in China ormonitored to detect terrorist activities in theUS, I don’t think we would be too wrong tobelieve that internet providers have thetechnical capacity to monitor the flux of in-formation from users. And if they don’t yet,things can change in the future,” says Stoe-nescu.

In fact, mechanisms may already be inplace for this to happen.

“I read the statements of our officials andgathered that from the technical view-point, everything is already implemented;it is only that the stipulations are not putinto practice on a large scale. Over the lastfew years, a series of organized crime net-works on the internet have been smashedso the authorities’ progress is already sig-nificant. This is why I tend to believe thatthese results could be registered only with the help of such technologies,” saysBiris.

Of course, this also raises the issue ofcosts and who will foot the bill. In theory, atleast, the expenditure issue does not sit wellwith internet providers in Romania. Re-cently, Mihai Batrineanu, president of theNational Association of Internet ServiceProviders, complained during a debate onACTA that the treaty transforms thesecompanies into “internet police”. Moreover,he said this would burden internetproviders with the “huge investments”necessary for “monitoring, scanning andstoring an immense amount of traffic.”

While at first glance internet providerscan cope, a more in-depth look will show

that “no business in Romania can afford toallot resources to monitor everything thatcan be monitored, because eventually thecost will reach consumers. “In other words,internet users will be watched on their ownmoney,” says Stanca.

Everybody is holding their breath un-til the agreement reaches the EP, no laterthan June. That body has only two options:ratify the treaty in its current form or rejectit entirely. It is not entitled to modify thetext or bring amendments.

“The EP has already expressed some con-cerns regarding ACTA, and if we add to thisthe massive anti-ACTA reaction from Eu-ropean civil society as well as the fact thatfive member states did not vote in Tokyo, Ithink the chances for it to be ratified in itscurrent form are slim. Surprises can happen,though,” says Stoenescu.

Public pressure may be the key to de-ciding ACTA’s fate. “I think this will be a po-litical vote. If enough people are against it,the Euro MPs will also vote against it. Hon-estly, with a few exceptions, I doubt theyunderstand anything about ACTA and itspossible consequences. But they do un-derstand that if they vote against those whoelected them, sooner or later they will bepenalized at the ballot,” says Stanca.

Some pessimistic – or maybe realistic –pundits believe that this is in fact only oneof many attempts to come which seek tobring the virtual space under tabs.

“From a logical perspective, I don’t thinkgovernments can leave the internet free.The risks are too high, at least in theory. Asa result, whether it is in one or ten years, thecontrol of what you do on the internet willsomehow be implemented,” concludesPatrascu.

otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

ONLINE

BR revamps online presence

mediate access to all of the site’s sections.News, features and interviews are nowgrouped under categories such as In-vestments, Money, Tech, Energy, Prop-erty, Bucharest Going Out and Lifestyle.The home page slider has been re-designed, while the site’s online contentis now integrated with the its social me-dia presence. ∫

Business Review is launching itsnew-look website this week, featuring a new structure, addi-

tional sections and redesigned layout, de-vised to offer an improved reading experience and easier access to infor-mation.

The new www.business-review.rofeatures breadcrumb navigation for im-

New look: Business Review is launching a revamped version of its website

14 FOCUS www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

∫ SIMONA BAZAVAN

Confident in the local market’s potential forgrowth, US-based Titan Machinery an-nounced last month that after acquiring lo-cal agricultural equipment dealer Agroex-pert in 2011, it estimates that in its first yearof activity on the Romanian market itcould double its sales to about EUR 40 mil-lion.

Romania is the first foreign market towhich the American agricultural and con-struction equipment dealer has expanded.Based in West Fargo, North Dakota, TitanMachinery now runs 91 service and deal-ership offices in the US.

According to the most recent availabledata, there were around 177,000 tractors inRomania in 2009 and about 24,000 cerealcombines, meaning that a physical tractorcovered a whopping 53 hectares of arableland compared to the European Union av-erage of 12 hectares. Probably more im-portant than the actual figure is the fact that75 percent of the agricultural equipmentowned by Romanian farmers is estimatedto be more than five years old, requiring up-grades and in most cases replacement.

All this is good news for local dealerswho should be looking at considerable fu-ture growth, judging from last year’s resultstoo.

“Overall, the agricultural machinerymarket grew considerably in 2011 againstthe previous year. We grew by 25 percentbut our competitors have also grown at asimilar rate. 2011 was a good agriculturalyear in terms of crops and prices and thishas allowed farmers to make investmentsin high-performing agricultural machinery,”Florin Neacsu, deputy general director ofNHR Agropartners, a local agricultural ma-chinery dealer, told BR.

The company imports agricultural ma-chinery and equipment under brands suchas New Holland, Poettinger, Hardi, Bogballeand Guestrower.

Not only did the number of new piecesof machinery go up, but Neacsu says thatin the past few years he has also witnessedan increase in demand for more powerfuland better performing machines, although

Local farming machinerymarket ploughs onWhile it is hard to estimate how many tractors or other agricultural machines are opera-tional at present in Romania, everyone – authorities, farmers and dealers – agrees thatthe fleet of agricultural machinery is considerably undersized and obsolete. Following agood agricultural year in 2011, local dealers saw sales go up by more than 20 percent.The trend is expected to continue throughout 2012, although poor weather conditionscurrently point to a lower growth rate.

the 100-150 horsepower (hp) category con-tinues to be the best sold.

Biso Romania, another player on the lo-cal market, saw its business grow by 40 per-cent last year and has similar expecta-tions for 2012 as the company plans to ex-pand its number of local dealerships. Thecompany sells locally New Holland tractorsand combines as well as the entire productportfolio manufactured by mother com-pany Biso Schrattenecker in Austria. Thefirm estimates that Romanian farmerswho cultivate more than 1,500 hectaresspend on average up to 40 percent of theirannual investment budget on equipment,Andreas Feichtlbauer, general director ofBiso Romania, told BR.

While everyone agrees that the marketgrew last year, it is hard to make accurateestimations about the actual number ofagricultural machines sold in Romaniabased on the information supplied by deal-ers, Neacsu said. He added that nor isthere information regarding what he calls

“grey” imports of machinery, which is reg-istered abroad and later brought unofficiallyinto the country, or cheaper no-brandproducts sold locally.

Biso Romania’s director, on the otherhand, estimates that about 450 combinesand approximately 2,000 new tractors aresold each year in Romania, leaving plenty

of room for future growth. “If we comparethis with other countries, the market is stillwell below its potential. Farmers still buyland instead of equipment – which is rightof course. But with the help of EuropeanStructural Funds, Romania will continue togrow in the agricultural sector,” he said.

As for what can be expected in 2012,Neacsu is cautious in his predictions. “Sofar 2012 points to weaker results because al-most  all farmers had issues with thedrought during the summer and autumn oflast year – the rape crops were compro-mised and the other crops sprang late anddidn’t have a chance to develop adequatelybefore the frost. We hope that the recent-ly fallen snow will make up for the lack ofwater in the soil and will protect the cropsfrom frost. As long as we don’t have floods– this would be a disaster for local farmers,”he said.

In the past three years Biso Romania hasinvested EUR 7.5 million in its headquartersin Drajna, home to its showroom, a servicecenter and spare parts area, and where ithas also built a production facility for 200employees, although this is not yet opera-tional. NHR Agropartners was bought byAustrian company VA Intertrading 11 yearsago and has since grown constantly, ac-cording to Neacsu.

Financing future growthFinancing continues to remain an issue formany local farmers, especially small ones,who are looking to buy new machinery.

NHR Agropartners works with severalbanks and leasing institutions, as most ofits clients choose credit while fewer go forEU funds. “Unfortunately the number ofEuropean Agricultural Fund for Rural De-velopment (EAFRD) projects has decreasedconsiderably in recent years, althoughthere is a clear need to buy more agricul-tural machinery so that the local agricultureindustry can get close to the standards ofits EU competitors. Local farmers toowould have wanted to access more projects,”he said, adding that the criteria that a proj-ect must meet in order to get EU financingoften prove discouraging. “I can’t commenton a situation on which I don’t have all theinformation, but I don’t understand whymore criteria have been introduced to dis-qualify projects rather than help fund ab-sorption,” he explained.

In order to supports clients, Biso Ro-mania launched three financial supportschemes earlier this year for farmers look-ing to buy new agricultural equipment,two of which are in partnership with Agri-cover Credit IFN.

Not made in RomaniaThe local agricultural machinery market isdominated by imported products, espe-cially when it comes to large-capacity ma-chines like tractors and combines. MihaiIvascu, marketing director of the Roman-ian Association of Manufacturers and Im-porters of Agricultural Machinery (API-MAR), told BR that an estimated 1,500new tractors are sold in Romania eachyear, out of which 90 percent are import-ed.

After UTB Brasov, the largest local trac-tor manufacturer was closed in 2007 aftermore than 60 years of activity, and there hasremained only a handful of local tractormanufacturers. They include Mat Craiova,Geda Prodexim, which operates a factoryin Campina, Prahova county, Irum Reghinand Hoyo Romania, which is a Chinese in-vestment in Rasnov, Brasov county.

simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

Photo: Mihai Constantineanu

“The market is still wellbelow its potential. Farm-ers still buy land insteadof equipment.” Andreas Feichtlbauer, GM of Biso Romania

INTERVIEW 15www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

∫ ANDREEA CEASAR

Market sources say you have the most prof-itable mall in Bucharest. How did you do it?We developed Cotroceni at the worst timebecause it was the middle of the crisis andwe delivered at the peak of the crisis, wheneverything was very grey and nobody wasexpecting to see the light. We opened theshopping mall with more than a 90 percentoccupancy rate and since then we haveworked intensively on our mix of tenants,bringing in international tenants and tak-ing out those who didn’t work as well as wehad expected. Of course there is the designof the shopping mall, its size and its posi-tion. But people make it happen.

You are also planning commercial spaces inBucurestii Noi, Bucharest, Ploiesti and Arad.What should we expect from them?For the 30,000-sqm shopping mall con-nected to a DIY store in Bucurestii Noi wehave signed the lease agreement with Real.We have already signed 30 percent of thepreleasing contracts, and are aiming to be80 percent leased by the end of 2012. Wewill start construction this year and aim tofinish it towards the end of next year. Theadvantage of this shopping mall will be thatit has a metro station inside – like at SunPlaza, but better as the connection with themetro station will be shorter. You willwalk 20 meters and you are in.

At AFI Place Ploiesti, another 30,000-sqm shopping mall, we have completed thedemolition and we will start constructionthis spring. We have not decided on thebuilder as we are completing the tenderprocess. Our aim is to open in 2013. It is al-ready more than 50 percent leased with theanchor tenant as Cora. We estimate that bythe end of the year we will have it 80 per-cent leased with most of the tenants com-ing from Cotroceni. As they have had a goodexperience with us, they have decided tofollow us. As for the retail park in Arad, weare negotiating over the hypermarket, andwe intend to start the construction this year.

International retailers are moving into sec-ondary cities. Is this why you’re planning twocommercial projects outside Bucharest?Today retailers recognize that they have avery good opportunity to expand, as it ischeaper. The fact that many tenants fromCotroceni are coming with us outsideBucharest makes us feel more confident inthe projects, as we know that others havedone their studies and come to the samepositive conclusion. And as hypermarketsare investing large amounts of moneythemselves in opening with us, we think weare moving in the right direction.

Do you also have the financing?So far we don’t have it for Bucuresti Noi orPloiesti, but for Ploiesti you will learn thefinancing bank in the coming weeks.

Aside from these three commercial projects,do you have any unused land plots?

We have plots in the south and north ofBucharest, in Pipera. We have a plot op-posite the former Vulcan factory, where intwo years’ time we plan to develop a retailand office park. We are starting the designand permitting process. Previously wewanted to do a residential project, but be-cause of the market situation we think itwould be premature.

Are you considering returning to the earli-er idea of building residential?No. The group’s strategy is to concentrateon commercial developments like retail andoffices. In Romania we won’t do residential,neither today nor in the near future.

You have obtained over EUR 13 million incredit for the first office building of the fiveincluded in the AFI Business Park Cotroceniproject, a real estate project, in fact, that ob-tained finance from Unicredit Bank Austriain these hard times. How did you do it?Because of the new European rules and thenew constraints imposed by the Basel IIIstandard, banks are more reluctant to fi-nance real estate investments. So it wasvery difficult, but due to our good rela-tionship with the banks and the fact that wehave never disappointed them we suc-ceeded. Unicredit has financed our projectsin Serbia, the Czech Republic and now Ro-mania, building a positive relationship. Inthese times if you have a good relationshipand a sustainable project, you will obtainfinancing. If one of these criteria is missingyou won’t.

When you say it was difficult, does thismean that the bank’s requirements werehard to fulfill?I am not talking about the terms of the con-

tract, but the whole credit approval process.I think that only very experienced devel-opers can fulfill the banks’ present re-quirements.

There are plenty of newly built office spaceswith one tenant per floor or just sittingempty. What are your expectations for yourown project? If you look at these offices most of them arelocated in Pipera or having legal problems.But if you look at the market in the city cen-ter you will see that the vacancy rate is verylow, approximately 5 percent. Our projecthas three main advantages: location, park-ing spaces and the possibility of the tenantexpanding within the current location, aswe will be building another four buildingsnext to the actual project, totaling 70,000of leasable sqm. Large companies are look-ing for this option, which is why we do notdeal with small firms and lease a minimumof 1,000 sqm. For our own project we tar-get as tenants IT companies and back of-fices of insurance companies or banks, aswe see a high demand from these segments,with potential to expand in two or threeyears to the other office spaces which willbe built. Currently we are negotiating 5,000

sqm and all our negotiations of preleasesare with IT companies. Next week we willprobably announce our first tenants.

This year many tenants will end their five-year contracts in office buildings. What willyou do to bring them to your project? These tenants are our target market. Andalthough the rent is an important factor forall companies, I believe our solution to theirexpansion plans, as well as parking spacesand location, is an opportunity.

By what percentage did the cost of buildingfall between 2008 and 2011? It seems all de-velopers are taking this into considerationas the start of many projects is being an-nounced this year.Indeed, the amount of construction in themarket has decreased considerably, bring-ing costs down. The cost of building ma-terials has also fallen. When we were build-ing Cotroceni it was very difficult to find aconstruction company. Today it is very easyas prices fell by roughly 20 percent between2008 and 2011, which is a lot.

After building the projects, will sales come?A developer by definition develops and sells.Our strategy is to develop, hold for someyears and then sell. Last year we saw thebest proof that we are doing a good job. Inthe Czech Republic we built Palac Florashopping center for approximately EUR 73million, sold half of it in 2004 to AvestusCapital Partners for EUR 120 million and lastyear Atrium European Real Estate acquiredthe project in Prague for EUR 191 millionfrom us and Avestus Capital Partners. Thisis the kind of investment we are looking for.

Is AFI Cotroceni Mall also for sale?At the moment we have no intention of sell-ing Cotroceni, but once the market getsback on its feet we will reassess the situa-tion. Many businesspeople and invest-ment funds are interested, but we are noton the sales market. This project is bring-ing in a very good income and in this peri-od cash flow is essential, so it is a good prop-erty to keep. A study conducted in 2011 re-garding retailers’ sales at AFI Palace foundthat they went up year on year by 23 per-cent, which is an excellent result. In addi-tion, we have a good number of visitors.During December, over the weekend wehad traffic of 84,000 people per day.

Did you expect this traffic?Not 84,000 visitors; we thought 70,000-75,000. The figures show we had 70,000visitors on weekdays.

So, tenants didn’t ask you to lower the rent?The tenants understand the quality andsuccess of the project. Those who asked areno longer here, as they were the ones whowere not performing well. And tenants thatare not performing well leave or are advisedto leave.

andreea.ceasar@business-review.ro

Hay is the company’s regional directorfor CEE. Before he joined AFI Europe in2006 he served as VP of Hail Holdings.Hay has over 20 years of experience in in-ternational real estate development andmarketing. He graduated from Bucking-ham University with an LLM.

CV David Hay

Post-crisis market A-OK for AFIAFI Europe Romania is planning to start three more commercial projects this year, hoping to replicate the prof-itability of AFI Cotroceni Mall. Will they enjoy the same success as their forerunner or was the developer justlucky? David Hay, CEO of AFI Europe Romania, told BR about the local development plans of the company, whichhas just obtained over EUR 13 million of financing for the first phase of its office project in Bucharest.

Photo: Laurentiu Obae

16 POWER www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

∫ OVIDIU POSIRCA

“Romania has to transpose European di-rectives 72 and 73 from 2009, whichstipulate among other things the inde-pendence of the energy regulator, ANRE,which should establish and approve tar-iffs based on proposals from energytransporters and distributors,” saysAlexandru Lupea, partner, audit servic-es, and group leader for energy, industry,mining and utilities at accountancy firmPwC Romania.

Lupea says that investments ofaround EUR 10 billion are needed in thegas and electricity sectors in the next fiveto ten years, while a transparent pricingpolicy that reflects real generation anddistribution costs, ensuring a decentprofitability level at the same time, wouldattract investors.

Deregulation by halfRomania had agreed to deregulate

prices in electricity and gas from 2013 forindustrial buyers and 2015 for households,but the ongoing financial crisis has forcedthe authorities to have these dates putback. President Traian Basescu negoti-ated a rescheduling of price liberalizationwith the troika (the IMF, European Com-mission and World Bank).

The government says the averageprice of natural gas in Romania was 68percent of the EU-27 average for indus-trial consumers at end-2011 and 50 per-cent for household consumers. For elec-tricity the average price was 78 percentof the EU average for industry and 61 per-cent for domestic consumers.

“If we deregulated energy prices to-morrow, I would have difficulties in mypaying my energy bills, although myhousing and car are provided by thePresidency,” said the head of state, fol-lowing talks with the troika. “I wanted topresent to the finance technocrats atechnical reality: what wage would Ro-manians have to earn to pay gas at mar-ket levels, for things to become flexible,” he added.

The presidential negotiations with thetroika proved partially successful, aselectricity prices for the industry will bederegulated from this year, while house-holds received a two-year delay from2015 to 2017. For gas, the situation is stilluncertain and the next IMF missionsscheduled for April will shed some lightin this area.

“Half of the electricity market is cur-rently regulated and this keeps down theprice to a point that some companies runa loss. Low electricity prices are also a

cover to keep bankrupt producers online,”says Alexandra Paun, junior analyst atCandole consultancy.

Romania may have some of the low-est energy prices in Europe but more ef-fort needs to be put into preventing en-ergy waste. “To compensate for the neg-ative effects of adopting energy prices toEU values, energy efficiency programsshould be encouraged, by granting a fis-cal stimulus to consumers that invest inefficiency or use EU funds for this ob-jective,” says Lupea.

Right voltage for electricityRomania has mixed energy sources,

including nuclear and hydro, allowingmore generating flexibility in the na-tional energy system. Renewable gener-ating capacities have sprung up in Ro-mania in the last five years, mainly inwind, where CEZ, Enel and Electrica areoperating or plan to open wind farms.These are the most important players inRomania’s electricity market. Installedwind capacity jumped from 11 MW in2008 to 982 MW at present, and a gen-erous governmental scheme that grants

Romania’s energyprice conundrumInvestments are needed in the energy sector, but keeping regulated prices could actas a deterrent for large companies that would otherwise consider putting money intoRomania’s energy infrastructure, say experts. At the same time, the EU is trying tocreate a common energy market that will push up the local cost of energy. Will theeconomy be able to cope with increased prices?

tradable green certificates for outputfrom clean sources should attract furtherinvestments. Other clean sources in-clude 380MW in small-hydro plants, 25MW for biomass and 1 MW in solar. Lastweek, wind parks in Dobrogea reached amaximum output of 1,000 MW due tothe snowy weather, but in summer thisfalls by half. However, Romania is stillgenerating more than half of its elec-tricity from carbon-intensive sourcessuch as coal and hydrocarbons.

Octavian Lohan, general director ofgrid operator Translectrica, says thataround EUR 500 million is needed for thedevelopment of ten lines of 400KV by2022. The grid operator has started de-veloping capacities that will allow elec-tricity exports to a regional market thatwill be set up by 2015.

The PwC partner says that big in-vestments are required to upgrade largecoal-generating capacities, and for build-ing new gas and nuclear capacities. Fur-ther investment is needed to intercon-nect Romania to the European energysystem, but grid capacity has to be in-creased to accommodate renewable

sources that “stress” the grid. Paun says that once electricity prices

start to increase, a share of the regulat-ed market, starting with energy used bylarge industrial producers, will be sold onthe energy market OPCOM.

Gas for a profitThe supply of natural gas for indus-

trial consumers came in equal measurefrom domestic sources and imports last month, while households and ther-mal energy producers received 92 per-cent domestic gas and 8 percent from im-ports.

Lupea says almost one third of Ro-mania’s gas consumption comes fromimports originating in Russia, at threetimes the cost from domestic sources.However, the ANRE set up a natural gasbasket for consumers, which uses 70percent natural gas from domesticsources, and 30 percent from imports,the final price paid by consumers repre-senting the weighted average of the two.

The PwC partner says the authoritiesprovided support for industrial sectorswith high energy consumption, includ-ing the chemicals sector, which receivedcheaper gas from domestic sources, amove that helped the industry remain inshape despite the economic downturn.However, gas suppliers and distributorshad to import expensive gas to supplyhouseholds and the extra costs have notbeen taken into account by the ANRE, re-sulting in losses for companies. At pres-ent, the gas market includes companiessuch as E.On, GDF Suez, Petrom andRomgaz. “Liberalizing gas prices wouldprovide an incentive for companies to in-vest in production, storage and distri-bution facilities,” says Paun.

Privatization panaceaRomania agreed in the letter of intent

signed with the troika under a EUR 5 bil-lion stand-by program to privatize sev-eral state-owned enterprises (SOEs),mainly in the energy and transporta-tion sector, assign private managers tostate companies and deregulate energyprices to attract private investments.

Mark Gitenstein, US ambassador inRomania, said recently in a speech thatRomania has 760 SOEs, with a value of 11percent of GDP, and the floating of thesecompanies on the capital market couldimprove Romania’s growth prospects.

It will be a busy season for theBucharest Stock Exchange as the gov-ernment wants to organize IPOs (initialpublic offerings) for Hidroelectrica, thelargest hydro generator; Nuclearelectri-ca, the sole nuclear generator; andRomgaz, the largest gas producer in Ro-mania, plus SPOs (secondary public of-ferings) for OMV Petrom, the oil andgas producer; Transelectrica, the grid op-erator; and Transgaz, the natural gastransporter.

However, the lack of a liberalizationschedule may impact these listings, andthe government could receive a lowerprice for the listed shares.“The calendarfor price deregulation is crucial for eval-uating energy companies, and the statecan gain more by clarifying this aspectbefore public offerings,” says Lupea.

Paun predicts the listing of SOEs,even minority stakes, will have a positiveimpact, encouraging transparency andmaking it more difficult to hide the mis-use of funds.

ovidiu.posirca@business-review.ro

Analysts say EUR 10 billion of investments are needed in the energy sector in thecoming decade

CITY 17www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

DEBBIE STOWE

Director: Tomas AlfredsonStarring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, TomHardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, MarkStrong, Benedict Cumberbatch, CiaranHindsOn: Cinema City Cotroceni, Cinema CitySun Plaza, Grand Cinema DigiplexBaneasa, Hollywood Multiplex, Studio,The Light Cinema

They might perform poorly in the block-buster stakes, but the Brits come into theirown with two film genres: low-budgetcomedies about the plucky working class-es triumphing over adversity, and lavishperiod pieces, often starring Colin Firth.Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, in the latter cat-egory, was therefore looking like a goodbet.

Based on the classic John le Carré spynovel of 1974, the story has already beenbrought to the screen once, in a classicseven-part BBC series. The key phrasehere being seven part: the film condens-es events to a running time of just overtwo hours.

This poses a significant problem: somuch plot has to be crammed in that un-less the viewer is already steeped in Smi-ley (the central character) and the story,TTSS the movie at times verges on the im-penetrable. This is not helped by a re-liance on flashback.

As in most espionage flicks, the cen-tral premise is: who is the double agent?Is it national treasure Colin? Is it that niceyoung man who plays Sherlock Holmes

FILM REVIEW

on the BBC? Is it one of that sinister ca-bal of chaps who sit around in smokyrooms? The difficulty is that so manycharacters are introduced in the firstpart of proceedings that the novice is like-ly to struggle to work out who they are all,let alone spot subtle clues as to whetherthey might be the mole.

Another problem is that TTSS is –barring the odd classily executed actionsequence – rather staid. Bond and Bournehave set a blueprint for spy films that in-cludes exotic locations and regular thrillsand spills, and while TTSS deserves cred-it for its cerebral eschewing of glamourand gimmicks, there does seem to be a su-perfluity of low-key office scenes featur-ing men in brown suits.

But there’s a lot to admire here too.The production values and performanc-es ooze class. TTSS is clearly ambitious,confident and high minded. And by aboutthree quarters of the way through, bywhich time even the most baffled new-comer should have worked out what’s go-ing on, there’s tension in the dénouement.The seventies are brought beautifully tolife, with their badly fitting brown suitsand smoke-filled offices, while it’s alldispatched to a stellar soundtrack.

Clearly many viewers and critics didunderstand and like it – or at least say theydid – as the film has recently garneredthree Oscar nominations amid a slew ofother accolades. So unless TTSS virginsare willing to spoil the surprise of the end-ing by gemming up with the novel, the TVseries or Wikipedia in advance, perhapsthis is a film best served by a second view-ing. ∫

Spy games Cumberbatch and Oldman search for a traitor in their ranks

Tinker TailorSolider Spy

120 Strada Drumul Potcoavei, Pipera0743 172 017

DEBBIE STOWE

Phill, a new gourmet restaurant thatopened recently in the Pipera area ofBucharest, marked its official unveiling inconjunction with the launch of the Ro-manian edition of the cookery book Ram-say’s Best Menus, by colorful Scottish TVchef Gordon Ramsay.

The glitzy bash was attended by thecream of the crop of the local and inter-national business and Romanian artisticcommunities, including names from theworld of acting, music and TV presenting.Those who braved the snow-bound jour-ney to the northern suburb of Pipera weregreeted with a selection of delicacies in-spired by the mercurial Ramsay’s culinarycreations.

Journalist and writer Dan Boerescu ofbucatarescu.ro, Antonina Sociu of sweetnothings-culinare.ro and Antena 1 an-chor Anca Rusu, of printesapolonic.ro,had put together a menu featuring someof the celebrity chef’s dishes, which wereserved up along with Phill’s own brandedfood and washed down with Lacertawines.

Boerescu and Rusu addressed the at-tendees at the launch event, along withSorin Chirita, Phill general manager, Ralu-ca Tarnauceanu, marketing coordinator atEditura Litera, publisher of the Romanian-language edition of Ramsay’s Best Menus,and Adina Scortescu, food editor of the lo-cal version of the magazine Good Food,which was also involved with the event.

Housed in a large villa, Phill takes itsname from the four-meter elephant guard-ing the staircase to the venue. The interi-or, the work of architect Robert Marin ofNuca Studio, embraces a contemporary

Phill links up withRamsay cookbook

style, featuring elements of pop culturesuch as manga and vinyl toys. It’s a placeof clean lines and bright colors, suited toGordon Ramsay’s modern brand of gas-tronomy.

According to the owners, the restau-rant’s menu was designed to reflect aglobal journey, with references to countrieswith top culinary credentials such asFrance, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Austria andChina. Dishes on the menu include: Sashi-mi new style, Black Angus beef, MisoBlack Cod, Tartar de Boeuf, TournedosRossini and Linguine all’astice, put to-gether under the auspices of chef Preven-da Hristu. However, the owners plan tooverhaul the menu at least twice a year.

The English edition of Ramsay’s BestMenus came out in 2010. The book is a col-lection of 52 menus, or 156 differentrecipes, that a creative chef can combinein 140,000 ways.

One useful feature for home chefs is itsdesign – with an approximately A4 format,the pages are sliced into three parts hori-zontally, allowing the reader to select anystarter, main course and dessert and haveall three visible simultaneously whencooking, with no need for flicking be-tween pages.

The was conceived as an accompani-ment to the Scottish chef’s TV seriesRamsay’s Best Restaurants, which fo-cused on the UK’s favorite internationalcuisines: Italian, French, Spanish, Mediter-ranean, British, Chinese, Thai, South EastAsian, Indian, Moroccan, Mexican andMiddle Eastern. It includes recipes drawnfrom these gastronomies, as well as Ram-say’s special seasonal menu suggestions.

Each recipe, which is expressedthrough a simply explained method, spec-ifies the number of servings and completeingredients, while overhead photographsof the end result indicate what the novicechef should be aiming for. Accompani-ments and essential basic recipes are alsoincluded.

RESTAURANT LAUNCH

Have your Phill: the gourmet restaurant was launched with a Gordon Ramsay book

Photo: Laurentiu Obae

18 IN TOUCH www.business-review.roBusiness Review | February 20 - 26, 2012

FOUNDING EDITOR Bill AveryEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simona Fodor SENIOR JOURNALIST Otilia Haraga JOURNALISTS Simona Bazavan, Ovidiu Posirca COPY EDITOR Debbie Stowe COLLABORATORS Anda Sebesi ART DIRECTOR Alexandru OrieanPHOTO EDITOR: Mihai ConstantineanuPHOTOGRAPHER Laurentiu ObaeLAYOUT Beatric e Gheorghiu

PUBLISHER Anca IonitaEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR George MoiseSALES & EVENTS DIRECTOROana MolodoiMARKETING MANAGERAna-Maria StancaSALES & EVENTS Ana-Maria NedelcuRESEARCH & SUBSCRIPTION Lili Voineag PRODUCTION Dan MitroiDISTRI BUTION Eugen Musat

ADDRESSNo. 10 Italiana St., 2nd floor, ap. 3Bucharest, Romania LANDLINEEditorial: 031.040.09.32Office: 031.040.09.31Fax: 031.040.09.34EMAILSEditorial: editorial@business-review.roSales: sales@business-review.roEvents: events@business-review.ro

ISSN No. 1453 - 729X

Jerome Lionet has been appointedgeneral manager ofSaint-Gobain GlassRomania. He beganhis career working inmilitary shipbuilding.Lionet spent the last

eight years working for various Saint-Gobain companies in regional emerg-ing markets. His various assignmentstook him from Poland to Russia andfrom the Middle East and North Africato Turkey, Romania and other CEcountries. He graduated from EcolePolytechnique, and then Ecole Na-tionale Superieure des Mines in Paris.

Daniela Budurea is the new country di-rector of WesternUnion Romania andBulgaria. She previ-ously served for sixyears as group coun-try manager of moneytransfer services

company Angelo Costa Romania.During the same period, she set upand managed Foreigners in Europe, aCosta Group media company. Shealso ran Angelo Costa InternationalRomanian branch, a company provid-ing call-center and support servicesto Costa Group money transfer com-panies in Italy and Spain. A graduateof the Bucharest Academy of Eco-nomic Studies, Budurea holds an ex-ecutive MBA from the ViennaUniversity of Economics and Busi-ness.

Gilles Antoinehas been appointedcountry general man-ager of L’Oreal Roma-nia. FrenchmanAntoine started hiscareer at L’OrealFrance 17 years ago,

in the sales organization. He has heldseveral international assignments incountries such as Mexico (as sales di-rector for the consumer products di-vision), Brazil (as commercial directorfor Latin America, consumer prod-ucts division) and Venezuela, wherehe served as the GM of the consumerproducts division. In 2009 he returnedto France as deputy GM for consumerproducts Latin America.

WHO’S NEWSBusiness Review welcomes informationfor Who’s News from readers.Submissions may be edited fo r lengthand clarity. Get in touch atsimona.bazavan@business-review.ro

CULTURAL EVENTS AGENDAAUCTIONSMartisor auctionFebruary 21-23, ArtmarkFebruary 21, Martisor I – Paintingand Sculpture, Hotel Pullman

The auction gathers a selection of 172small works by the most famous Ro-manian artists of all periods. Among themost valuable are two Grigorescu paint-ings: Apple Flowers, painted in oil onwood, predicted to raise between EUR30,000 and 50,000, and House at Camp-ina, oil on canvas, estimated at EUR15,000 to 25,000.

February 22, Martisor II – VintageMartisoare, Jewelry and DecorativeArts, Hotel PullmanA fine selection of ornaments and dec-orations made of precious metals by fa-mous decorative art workshopsthroughout Europe. One of the most re-markable pieces is the Faberge Ciga-rette Case in silver and gold, bearingthe princely monogram Trubetkoi-Cali-nescu, estimated at EUR 3,000 to 6,000,made in a famous workshop whichserved the Russian Imperial House.

February 23, Martisor III – HotelAthenee Palace HiltonThe auction, entitled Memorable Cin-ema, brings under the hammer per-sonal items, photos and props from suc-cessful movies and plays belonging tothe top Romanian actors. The secondpart of the evening is dedicated to aPostmodernism and ContemporaryAuction displaying 62 artworks by post-war and contemporary classic Roman-ian figures, such as Corneliu Baba,Alexandru Ciucurencu and ConstantinPiliuta; icons of the 60-70s generation,Paul Neagu, Horia Bernea, Stefan Cal-tia, Sorin Ilfoveanu and Viorel Marginea;and notable modern artists like DanPerjovschi and Teodor Graur. More details about the Martisor auc-tions can be found at www.artmark.ro.

OPERAErnaniFebruary 2519.55, The Light Cinema (The MetLive in HD)

Angela Meade is the rising star of Verdi’sgripping drama and Marcello Giordano,Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferru-cio Furlanetto round out the cast in a per-formance of approximately 3 hours and50 minutes. Tickets can be purchasedfrom The Light Cinema, Liberty Center,151-171, Progress Road.

FairsMartisor Fair February 24 – 2910.00 to 18.00, National Museum of theRomanian PeasantA traditional Martisor fair where over 200artisans, artists and students will gatherto exhibit and sell all sorts of amulets tiedwith red and white string to celebrate thecoming spring. Embracing either surrealor vintage design, some recycled, they aremastered in clay, textile, paper, felt andwool. Culinary delights from the differentregions of Romania, such as gingerbread,sweets, plum jam, kurtos kalacs, applejuice, honey and other goodies, become forthis week the gastronomic martisoare ofthe season.

DanceSensation – The Ocean of WhiteApril 2122.00, Central Hall, Romexpo

Hailing from Amsterdam, Sensation, themost famous dance event in Europe, willdebut in Romania in April. The famousOcean of White performance, where par-ticipants traditionally dress exclusively inwhite, will showcase amazing sea crea-tures, DJs, dancers, fireworks, waterfallsand lasers. Tickets are on sale throughthe Eventim network. The first 1,000 tick-ets in the Ring area will cost RON 175, fol-lowed by the Delux category at RON 440and VIP category at RON 770 (table placeand bar voucher included).

ExhibitionComic strip by Livia RuszFebruary 9 – March 13Mon-Thu 10.00 to 17.00, Fri 10.00 to14.00 – Hungarian Cultural Center inBucharestAfter its great success at the European

Comic Strips Show in Bucharest in No-vember 2011, the comic strip exhibitionby the artist Livia Rusz, organized withthe support of the Romanian CulturalInstitute and Hungarian Cultural Center,once again gives Bucharest audiencesthe opportunity to revisit their child-hoods. The exhibition will run untilMarch 13. Curator: Alexandru Ciubotariu.

ConcertsNigel KennedyApril 219.00, Palace HallOne of the best-selling violinists in the

world, the British artist Nigel Kennedyaccompanied by his band, the NigelKennedy Quintet, will take their audi-ence on a bold adventure through vari-ous musical styles from classic to jazz,fusion and rock. Tickets, costing fromRON 80 to RON 250, are available atwww.vreaubilet.ro, from the box office atthe Palace Hall and the kiosk at UnireaShopping Center, second floor, as wellas through the Vreau Bilet Agency.

Pink Martini OrchestraMay 2620.00, Palace HallOn their promotional tour for their latestalbum, A Retrospective, the Pink Martini

Orchestra will stop in Bucharest, thescene of several previous concerts bythe outfit. In keeping with the theme ofthe album, the concert will serve as aretrospective of the act’s 16-year career,including hits like Una Notte a Napoli,Hang On Little Tomato, Donde estasYolanda and Que Sera Sera. Tickets are available online atwww.eventim.ro or through the Even-tim network.