Money Buzz! Europa

Tag: budapest

  • SPAR Hungary to expand two distribution centres

    SPAR Hungary to expand two distribution centres

    SPAR Hungary is expanding by 4.000 m2 its dry goods warehouse and fresh goods delivery area at the SPAR Distribution Centre in Bicske.

    This investment will bring the total storage space to almost 40.000m2, and increase the distribution centre’s stocking capacity by 4.000 pallets.

    In addition, the total investment will cover the development of offices and the construction of access paths at a cost of 2.5 billion HUF.

    The second SPAR Distribution Centre in Üllő, a new dry goods warehouse of 6.000m2 with a storage capacity of 5.000 pallets is being built.

    In addition, a 2.000m2 gallery suitable for stocking goods of is being constructed. A new pallet lifting machine that can move 4.000 pallets a day will support this expanded capacity.

    SPAR Hungary operates 382 company-owned stores and 200 independently owned stores nationwide.

    In September, the retailer continued its plan to upgrade local stores. The company spent a total of HUF 1.56 billion on its renewed units in Budakeszin, Nyergesújfalu and Komárom.

  • New Monoštor bridge connecting Slovakia and Hungary, opened for traffic

    New Monoštor bridge connecting Slovakia and Hungary, opened for traffic

    The new Monoštor bridge connecting Komárom (Hungary) and Komárno (Slovakia) was officially opened for traffic.

    The new road connection, which improves both road transport and inland navigation on the Danube, was supported with €100 million of EU funding through the Connecting Europe Facility (85% of the total costs).

    The new two-lane, 600-metre bridge links the ports of the two Danube cities and removes a crucial bottleneck – the existing Erzsébet Bridge is not suitable for vehicles heavier than 20 tonnes.

    The bridge includes two bicycle lanes.

  • SPAR Hungary at its 200 independent retailer store in the country

    SPAR Hungary at its 200 independent retailer store in the country

    SPAR Hungary celebrated the opening of its 200th independent retailer store in the town of Kunhegyes, in the northeast.

    SPAR Hungary plans to open 20-22 independently owned stores per year, with the focus on bringing the brand to smaller communities.

    In 2019, the SPAR store network of independently owned stores generated a total turnover of almost €155 million and provided employment to 1.800 people nationwide.

    The 200th independently owned SPAR Supermarket is a small 206 sq.m neighbourhood store located in a former department store. The store was completely rebuilt.

    In addition to 200 stores operated by independent retailers, SPAR Hungary currently operates 382 corporate stores nationwide.

  • Residential developer Cordia enters UK market by acquiring Blackswan

    Residential developer Cordia enters UK market by acquiring Blackswan

    Cordia International has acquired UK developer Blackswan. Cordia financed the transaction by using funds collected from the bond issuance under National Bank of Hungary’s Bond Funding for Growth Scheme.

    The acquisition allows Blackswan to deliver a GBP 550 million project pipeline across the West Midlands

    Cordia is the residential development platform of Futureal Group, one of the leading real estate development and investment groups in Central and Eastern Europe with more than 500 real estate professionals and 650.000 sqm of properties under construction across 32 ongoing projects.

    The company’s latest acquisition marks its first investment in the UK market.

    The UK company will continue to operate under the Cordia Blackswan brand and be led by the current management team.

    The Blackswan transaction as well as the acquisition of 93% of Warsaw listed Polish residential developer Polnord S.A and a 20% stake in Argo Properties was partly financed by using the funds collected from the bond issuance within the Bond Funding for Growth Scheme of National Bank of Hungary’s.

    The latest acquisitions increased Cordia’s development land bank to over 14.000 apartments.

    Cordia has recently issued a EUR 135 million 7-year bond and a EUR 105 million 10-year bond to fund its international expansion and foray into the private rental sector.

    Blackswan Property was founded by Marcus Hawley in 2009 and focuses on residential-led mixed-use developments in the West Midlands region.

    Projects currently include The Lampworks, a 124 home build-to-rent apartment scheme and The Gothic, an ambitious reanimation of listed and heritage buildings which will create a new residential and leisure destination, both located in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, on the edge of Birmingham City Centre.

  • EPH sells two heat suppliers from Budapest and Prague to Veolia

    EPH sells two heat suppliers from Budapest and Prague to Veolia

    Czech company EP Infrastructure, part of EPH group, sold its approximately 95.62% share in Budapesti Erőmű Zrt. (BERT) and its 100% share in Pražská teplárenská to Veolia.

    BERT is the largest heat producer in Budapest. The company, owning three gas cogeneration sources (with an output of 1,402 MWt / 396 MWe), is covering 56% of the heat consumption of FÖTÁV Zrt., a municipal district heating network operator owned by the city of Budapest.

    Pražská teplárenská, a.s. operates the largest district heating network in the Czech Republic (550 km, 230,000 households).

    It supplies heat for the right-bank part of Prague and in 2019, its operational profit reached approximately CZK 5 billion and the company employed 411 people.

  • Hungary: 75% less nights spent by international tourists in July 2020

    Hungary: 75% less nights spent by international tourists in July 2020

    In July 2020, as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, international tourists spent 75% and domestic tourists 18% fewer tourism nights in commercial accommodation establishments (hotels, boarding houses, camping sites, bungalow complexes and community hostels) compared to the same period of the previous year.

    82% of all tourism nights were spent by domestic guests.

    Total gross sales revenues declined by 41% at current prices in commercial accommodation establishments.

    Foreign arrivals fell by 76%

    The number of foreign arrivals and tourism nights fell by 76% and 75% respectively, with 166 thousand guests spending 478 thousand tourism nights in accommodation establishments.

    Most guests stayed in hotels or camping sites. The number of hotel nights fell to almost a fifth.

    57-60% declines were seen in camping sites, boarding houses and bungalow complexes, and a 91% fall in community hostels. Budapest recorded the largest, 88%, downturn.

    Domestic guests fell by 12%

    758 thousand domestic guests (12% decrease) spent 2.1 thousand tourism nights (18% decrease). Six out of ten nights were spent in hotels, where the rate of decline was 8.6%.

    Unlike hotels, boarding houses registered 2.5% more nights. The number of campsite arrivals was at two thirds of their last July level. Lake Balaton was the most popular region.

  • Hungary: Average net earnings were HUF 280,500 in June 2020

    Hungary: Average net earnings were HUF 280,500 in June 2020

    In June 2020, average gross earnings amounted to HUF 421,700, 15.6% higher than a year earlier. The one-time HUF 500.000 bonus received by health care workers explain a significant part of the outstanding growth.

    In January–June 2020, average gross earnings amounted to HUF 395.000, average net earnings were HUF 262.600.

    Both grew by 9.9% compared to the same period of the previous year.

    Full-time employees’ average gross nominal earnings – as defined by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office – at corporations employing at least 5 persons, at budgetary institutions and significant non-profit organisations in respect of employment, amounted to HUF 421,700 and excluding fostered workers were HUF 434,000.

    Average net earnings were HUF 280,500 excluding tax benefits and HUF 290,200 including them.

    Both average gross earnings and average net earnings excluding tax benefits grew equally, by 15.6%.

    Average net earnings including tax benefits rose to a greater extent, by 16.0%, compared to the same period of the previous year, in relation to a temporary decrease as well as elimination of social security payment obligations in certain economic branches.

    Average gross regular earnings (gross earnings without premiums and one-month bonuses) were estimated at HUF 375,900, which is 10.6% higher than a year before.

  • Hungary GDP down by 13.6% in the second quarter of 2020

    Hungary GDP down by 13.6% in the second quarter of 2020

    The gross domestic product of Hungary went down by 13.6% according to raw data and by 13.5% according to seasonally and calendar adjusted and reconciled data in the 2nd quarter of 2020 compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

    In the first half of the year, the economic performance decreased by 6.1% according to raw data gathered by Hungarian Central Statistical Office.

    Compared to the previous quarter, the volume of gross domestic product was down by 14.5% – according to seasonally and calendar adjusted and reconciled data – in the 2nd quarter of 2020.

  • Wizz Air second UK base at Doncaster Sheffield Airport

    Wizz Air second UK base at Doncaster Sheffield Airport

    Wizz Air announced a new base at Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which will be the second base for Wizz Air UK, the group’s UK-registered and based airline, alongside London Luton.

    The airline will allocate one Airbus A320 aircraft to the Yorkshire airport, and will launch seven new routes to add to its existing Doncaster Sheffield network of ten routes.

    Wizz Air’s first flight from Doncaster Sheffield Airport took off over 14 years ago, and since then the company has grown to be the airport’s largest carrier, with over 1 million passengers every year flying on the airline’s ultra-low central and eastern European routes.

    With the creation of a new base at Doncaster Sheffield Airport, Wizz Air will launch new connections to destinations including the Spanish cities of Alicante and Malaga, Larnaca in Cyprus, Faro in Portugal, Lublin in Poland, Kosice in Slovakia and Suceava in Romania.

    The creation of a new Wizz Air UK base will increase the annual capacity of Doncaster Sheffield Airport by 150.000 seats.

    Wizz Air will create over 36 direct jobs and over 110 indirect jobs in the Doncaster area.

    With the allocation of this aircraft, Wizz Air now has 11 aircraft permanently based in the UK, and the addition of these new routes from Doncaster Sheffield means the airline has almost 1.8 million seats on sale on its 107 routes from the UK for the remainder of 2020.

    The creation of this new base also follows on from Wizz Air’s recent announcements of new bases in Bacău, Dortmund, Lviv, Larnaca, Milan-Malpensa, Tirana, Saint Petersburg and the launch of over 200 new routes across the network since April 2020.

  • MOL Group reported USD 152mn net loss for Q1 2020

    MOL Group reported USD 152mn net loss for Q1 2020

    MOL Group announced its financial results for Q1 2020. Large inventory and foregin exchange losses resulted in MOL reporting a USD 152mn net loss for Q1, the first sign of the pandemic-related crisis.

    Underlying operations were running strong until mid-March, as reflected by the USD 622mn Clean CCS EBITDA, however, the pandemic had already started to severely affect all business lines in the last 2-3 weeks of March and the situation further deteriorated in April.

    Due to the unpredictable external environment, 2020 EBITDA guidance was withdrawn and organic capital expenditure guidance was cut by more than 25%.

    Due to the extremely low oil prices from the beginning of March, Upstream EBITDA decreased to USD 185mn in Q1.

    Oil & gas production volumes were 110.6 mboepd, 4% lower than a year ago, due to the natural decline in CEE. In Q1, MOL, as an operator, made an oil and gas discovery offshore Norway with a preliminary estimate of recoverable resources between 12-71 million barrels.

  • Industrial production decreased by 7.8% in Hungary, in June 2020

    Industrial production decreased by 7.8% in Hungary, in June 2020

    In June 2020 the volume of industrial production declined by 7.8% year-on-year. Based on working-day adjusted data, production dropped by 12.2%. The economic effects caused by the coronavirus epidemic were still perceptible in this period.

    The production volume decreased in the majority of the manufacturing subsections. A significant fall was observed in the largest weight representing manufacture of transport equipment, while the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products, as well as the manufacture of food products, beverages and tobacco products slightly grew.

    In the first six months of the year production was 12.8% lower than in the same period of the previous year.

    Industrial output in June – according to seasonally and working-day adjusted indices – was 17.1% above the level of the previous month.

  • Hungary: Number of tourism nights fell by 75% in June

    Hungary: Number of tourism nights fell by 75% in June

    In June 2020, as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, international tourists spent 93% and domestic tourists 59% fewer tourism nights in commercial accommodation establishments (hotels, boarding houses, camping sites, bungalow complexes and community hostels) compared to the same period of the previous year.

    87% of all tourism nights were spent by domestic guests. Total gross sales revenues declined by 77% at current prices in commercial accommodation establishments.

    Due to the lifting of epidemiological restrictions at the end of May, the number of domestic tourism nights increased dynamically in June to more than fourfold compared to the previous month.

    The number of foreign arrivals and tourism nights both fell by 93%, with 41 thousand guests spending 101 thousand tourism nights in accommodation establishments.

    The number of nights in boarding houses reached one-fifth of the value measured in the same month of the previous year, while in other accommodation types it was between 3% and 14%.

    The largest decrease (98%) took place in Budapest. At Lake Balaton, less than a tenth of the previous year’s turnover was realized.

    285 thousand domestic guests (60% decrease) spent 672 thousand tourism nights (59% decrease), with the latter falling most in community hostels and least in boarding houses.