Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Business

  • Lion’s Head Investments appoints Anca Simionescu as Country Manager in Romania

    Lion’s Head Investments appoints Anca Simionescu as Country Manager in Romania

    Lion’s Head Investments announces the appointment of Anca Simionescu as Country Manager in Romania, responsible for the implementation of the Group’s strategy in the country. 

    Anca Simionescu is a senior real estate professional who was responsible for various office and residential projects in Bucharest.

    With 15 years of experience in commercial and residential real estate investment, asset management and business development, Anca successfully identified new business opportunities, new expansion areas and markets for different business lines.

    She was part of the managerial teams of companies such as Skanska Romania and Forte Partners.

    Anca Simionescu has a degree in Robotics, obtained at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and a master’s degree from the University of Osaka.

  • Ikea online retail sales increased 45% this year

    Ikea online retail sales increased 45% this year

    Ikea published today some facts and figures for financial year 2020 (FY20). The financial year runs from 1 September to 31 August.

    Online retail sales increased 45% this year, and the Ikea website registered four billion visits. E-commerce expanded to three new markets, including China.

    Ikea retail sales reached EUR 39.6 billion, compared to EUR 41.3 billion in FY19 and the number of employees reached 217.000, compared to 211.000 in FY19.

    This year’s edition of the IKEA catalogue marks its 70th birthday. 

    During financial year 21, Ikea will expand to new markets like Mexico and the Philippines. Several locations will also open in existing markets.

  • Kering sold 5.9% of the share capital of Puma for € 655.6 million

    Kering sold 5.9% of the share capital of Puma for € 655.6 million

    Kering announces the completion of the sale of approximately 5.9% of the share capital of Puma for a total amount of approximately € 655.6 million, corresponding to a selling price of € 74.50 per Puma share.

    Following this transaction, Kering will have a remaining stake of 9.8% of Puma’s share capital.

    Kering and Artémis have entered into a lock-up agreement relating to the Puma’s shares, which lock-up is expected to end after a period of 90 calendar days from the settlement date of the shares, subject to certain exceptions or waiver by the joint global coordinators.

    The proceeds of this transaction will be used for the general corporate purposes of Kering and will further strengthen its financial structure. Settlement of the Placement is expected on 8 October 2020.

    A global Luxury group, Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods, Jewelry and Watches: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin, Ulysse Nardin, Girard-Perregaux, as well as Kering Eyewear.

    In 2019, Kering had nearly 38.000 employees and revenue of €15.9 billion.

  • New CEO at Sodexo Romania: Manuel Fernandez Amezaga

    New CEO at Sodexo Romania: Manuel Fernandez Amezaga

    Sodexo Romania announces the appointment of Manuel Fernandez Amezaga as CEO of the company, starting with November 2020. He will replace Sven Marinus.

    Manuel Fernandez Amezaga is a manager with more than 20 years’ experience, specialized in payment technologies. He has joined Sodexo in 2010 and held leadership positions in Spain and Philippines working with private sector and Government authorities.

    During his tenure as a CEO of Sodexo Philippines he led the company on its digitalization journey, implementing numerous fintech solutions. Sven Marinus has been appointed CEO of Sodexo Belgium and Luxemburg.

    Sodexo Romania has been in the last three years in a process of transformation and digitalization of all its services and activities.

    Now the company offers the latest technologies in its field: online payment, mobile solutions – both Android (Sodexo Pay, a proprietary solutions), and iOS platforms (Apple Pay) – and integration with delivery platforms.

  • Slovenská pošta to digitalize its services with a €32 million loan from EIB

    Slovenská pošta to digitalize its services with a €32 million loan from EIB

    The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a €32 million loan with Slovenská pošta, the Slovak public postal operator.

    Through this investment, EIB will contribute to the digitalisation and innovation of Slovenská pošta’s services and operations with the financing of new IT systems as well as specialised postal equipment, such as parcel sorting lines and digitally integrated parcel boxes.

    The project is part of Slovenská pošta’s investment programme 2018-2021 to digitalise and transform its operations and portfolio of services.

    Slovenská pošta has been active on the Slovak postal market for 25 years. In addition to ensuring the provision of universal postal services, Slovenská pošta is a leading provider of modern distribution and payment services on the domestic market.

  • Chief Sales Officer Ulli Eickmann to leave Takko Fashion

    Chief Sales Officer Ulli Eickmann to leave Takko Fashion

    Takko Fashion announced today that Ulli Eickmann, Chief Sales Officer (CSO), will leave the company on his own request on 31st October 2020.

    Ulli Eickmann, who joined the company as Head of Sales in 2005, has helped to shape the development of Takko during the past 15 years significantly and with great success in a range of roles within the international sales area.

    Since December 2015 he has been responsible in his current position as CSO for the areas of Retail, Marketing, E-Commerce, Expansion, Sales Organization as well as Construction and Development. 

  • CCC revenues recovered after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown

    CCC revenues recovered after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown

    CCC reported a revenue increase for Q2 and Q3 2020 of 82% and 60% year on year, respectively.

    CCC’s LFL sales surged quarter on quarter, from -48% in Q2 to -16% in Q3, driven by a steady increase in foot traffic at the CCC stores, significant conversion levels, and purchase baskets.

    The share of e-commerce sales (carried out through 64 online platforms) in the group’s revenue in Q2 2020 was close to 50%, compared with 23% a year earlier, and in Q3 2020 it was 38% (preliminary data), relative to 25% a year earlier.

    In Q2 and Q3, CCC significantly developed its online points of contact with the customer by launching 12 new desktop platforms and applications on new foreign markets.

    In Q2, the e-commerce revenue from platforms other than eobuwie reached PLN 156m (25% of the e-commerce segment’s sales).

    Eobuwie posted revenues of PLN 538m (up 54% year on year) for Q2 2020 and almost tripled its EBITDA margin, up 9.1pp year on year (to 14.1%).

    At the end of Q2 2020, the total area of the CCC sales network was 762,000 m2 (including KVAG 74,000 m2). At the end of September 2020, the CCC Group was present in 29 countries.

    In 22 of them CCC operated more than 1.209 traditional stores (including 156 KVAG stores), and had an online presence in 17 countries.

    The group operates a total of 66 online platforms across Europe, including eobuwie.pl, ccc.eu, MODIVO, DeeZee, and Gino Rossi.

  • 11.900 foreign controlled enterprises operated in Austria in 2018

    11.900 foreign controlled enterprises operated in Austria in 2018

    In 2018, 11.900 enterprises in Austria operated under foreign control, according to Statistics Austria. This is 3.8% more than in the year before.

    At the same time, Austrian enterprises had control over 6.000 enterprises abroad, a rise of 0.1% in numbers. Besides Germany, main target for Austrian investments abroad still was the central, eastern and south-eastern region of Europe.

    Although they accounted only for 3.4% of all domestic market enterprises (not including sectors like agriculture, forestry and fishing, education, health, cultural, public and non-profit sector), foreign controlled enterprises in 2018 employed one in five persons employed (21%) and accounted for more than one third (34.5%) of the total turnover in the Austrian market economy.

    74.4% of foreign controlled enterprises in Austria had their corporate headquarters within the European Union.

    By far the most important partner country was Germany, accounting for 39.2% of all cases, followed by Switzerland (11.2%), Italy (5.8%), the UK (4.6%) and the Netherlands as well as the United States (4.5% each).

    Though the number of Austrian affiliates abroad was more or less the same as the year before, their employment rose by 5.5% in 2018.

    Turnover went up by 12.8%, mainly due to the results of multinationals’ oil and raw materials trading entities reported by their Austrian controlling units. 

    But also other activities in the petro-chemical cluster, like manufacture of refined petroleum products, manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, performed very well in 2018.

    Foreign affiliates could mainly be found in Germany (14% of all units or 13% of foreign employment). Ranked by employment shares, Germany was followed by the Czech Republic (9.0%), Hungary (6.9%), Romania (6.5%), the United States (5.2%) and Poland (4.6%).

    65.6% of all foreign affiliates were located in EU countries, reaching a share in foreign employment of 63.8%.

  • H&M to close 250 stores next year, after the increase of online shopping

    H&M to close 250 stores next year, after the increase of online shopping

    H&M plans to close hundreds of stores next year after the coronavirus pandemic led to an increase online shopping, DPA and Reuters reported.

    H&M had 5.043 stores on August 31, in 74 markets, including franchises, worldwide.

    The Swedish company announced that it will reduce the number of stores by 250 in 2021, representing 5% of its current network. H&M also reported that sales continued to recover in September following the impact of the pandemic.

    On the Stockholm Stock Exchange, H&M shares were up 6% on Thursday.

    H&M financial results in Q2 2020

    Between June and August 2020, pre-tax profit fell to SEK 2.37 billion ($ 265.6 million) from SEK 5.01 billion a year ago.

    H&M local currency sales also fell by 5% in September, after declining by 19% between June and August 2020.

    Net profit halved in June-August 2020 to SEK 1.8 billion ($ 201 million) from SEK 3.8 billion a year ago. Quarterly sales fell to SEK 50.8 billion, while online local currency sales rose by more than a quarter.

    Sales fell in all major H&M markets, from 34% in the US to 16% in China and 10% in Germany.

    The Swedish group has seven brands: H&M, COS & Other Stories, Monki, Weekday, Arket and H&M Home.

  • Banks profits in Slovakia fell by almost half at the end of August

    Banks profits in Slovakia fell by almost half at the end of August

    The eight-month profit of Slovak banks amounted to EUR 254,3 million, according to National Bank of Slovakia data and cited by Ekonomika.

    Net interest income, which accounts for the largest part of the banking sector’s revenues, fell by 4.6% to €1.107bn.

    Profitability also fell for banks in Slovakia at the end of August. However, the pace of year-on-year decline slowed compared to July, from 51.4% to 43.1%. Provisioning and provisions increased significantly, from EUR 73,2 million to EUR 259,9 million.

    Banks expect the increased provisioning to continue into the next period.

  • European businesses are preparing for a historic recession

    European businesses are preparing for a historic recession

    Almost six in ten respondents at an Intrum survey say a Pan-European recession is a top three challenge when it comes to consumers paying on time over the next twelve months.

    In the survey, two measures among European companies clearly stand out. In order to protect their business in preparation for a recession and an economic upheaval, 38 per cent of respondents plan to cut costs, while 35 per cent will be more cautious about debt.

    29 per cent say they are looking to cut down on recruitment to prepare for a recession, compared to 18 per cent in 2019.

    ”Businesses are now taking necessary steps to prepare for a recession caused by the pandemic. Decreased revenues have reduced businesses’ cash flow and increased pressure on their outgoing payments”, says Mikael Ericson, President and CEO of Intrum.

    The payment gap is widening

    The estimated time between the agreed payment term and the actual duration of pay is now 14 days compared to 6 days in 2019 in B2B corporate payments.

    More than four in ten respondents (43 per cent) see risk from debtors increasing over the next twelve months and 19 per cent say it will increase significantly. Businesses are under increasing pressure by reduced liquidity, leaving many of them to search for alternative ways to free up cash.

    Nearly half (46 per cent) say the widening gap is a real risk to the sustainable growth of their business. During the crisis, more than half (51 percent) said that late payments threatened a liquidity squeeze for their business, compared to 35 percent of those surveyed before the crisis

    Real estate and construction hit hardest by late payments

    Intrum report highlights that businesses in the real estate and construction sector have been hit hardest by late payments. 41 per cent of these businesses say they now have accepted longer payments to avoid bankruptcy, whereas the European average is 35 per cent.

    At the same time, as previously reported, companies within hospitality and leisure still struggle with different government restrictions across Europe.

    Within this sector, four in 10 respondents (42 per cent) say that a recession will have a severe impact on their businesses – the highest figure of the 11 industries Intrum surveyed.

    Intrum has gathered data from 9.980 companies across 29 European countries covering 11 industry sectors. The survey was conducted during February to May 2020 (pre and during Covid-19).

  • Aegean net losses after tax at €158.8m in the first half of 2020

    Aegean net losses after tax at €158.8m in the first half of 2020

    Aegean total number of flights operated fell by 82% in the second quarter (with a reduction of 95% and 92% for the months of April and May respectively), while passenger traffic fell 92%.

    Revenue for the second quarter stood at just €40.4m, 88% down compared to the second quarter of 2019, i.e. a decline in revenue of €307m.

    Pre-tax losses (excluding extraordinary) stood at €58.7m against pretax profit of €31.5m in the respective 2019 period. 

    As a result, overall first half 2020 revenue fell by 64% to €187.4m while underlying pre-tax losses stood at €132.3m.

    The results were burdened by extraordinary losses of €68.5m from ineffective hedging, mainly due to the large portion of fuel hedging contracts for the duration of 2020 being rendered ineffective by the significant reduction in flight activity.

    Net losses after tax stood at €158.8m in the first half compared to losses of €13m in the respective period last year.