business review issue 20/2014 june 2 - 8
DESCRIPTION
Home-grown troubles plus the effects of the financial crisis have put the local insurance sector, an emerging market, under pressure.TRANSCRIPT
ROMANIA’S PREMIER BUSINESS WEEKLY JUNE 2 - 8, 2014 / VOLUME 18, NUMBER 20
INTERVIEW: Bianca Fota, the prima ballerina assoluta of theBucharest National Opera, tells BR about the experience of playing the most coveted role in ballet, Odette/Odile, in a newproduction of Swan Lake »page 12
NEWS
Poll positionRomanian voters rejected extremist parties in last week’sEU Parliament election, with turnoutup by almost 5 percentage points» page 4
EVENTS
SMEs How toExperts at BR’s SMEsHow-to event outlinedfinancing programs forsmall players andvoiced their concernover poor local management skills » page 6
Home-grown troubles plusthe effects of the financial
crisis have put the localinsurance sector, an emerging
market, under pressure »pages 8-9
PROPERTYAFTER DELIVERING THE FIRST BUILDING OF THE OFFICE PROJECT IN CLUJ-NAPOCA WITH A EUR 26 MILLIONINVESTMENT, NEPI AND OVIDIU SANDOR ARE POISED TO START CONSTRUCTION OF PHASE TWO»PAGE 10
HERE COMES THE RAIN AGAIN
NEW S 3www.business-review.eu Business Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
NEWS in briefNEW S 3
AIRLINESTarom sees traffic drop in 2013Tarom carried 2.1 million passengerslast year, down from 2.19 million in2012, falling short of the 2.3 million tar-get stipulated in the management planapproved early last year, writes zf.ro.Airline officials did not provide an ex-planation for the decline. Under themanagement plan, the privately-runstate-owned airline was supposed toincrease its annual passenger numbersby 100,000 and reach 2.6 million pas-sengers in 2016. Romania’s TransportMinistry replaced four out of six mem-bers of the state-run airline’s executiveboard earlier this month.
ART MARKETArt Safari attracts 15,000 visitors Bucharest’s first professional and publicart pavilion Art Safari attracted 15,000visitors during its four-day presentationof Romanian art, according to Artmarkestimations. Of these, over 11,000 werepaying customers, added the auctionhouse.
HUMAN RESOURCESContinental to up headcount by1,500 over coming monthsContinental has announced that it willhire 1,500 people over the comingmonths, to fuel its production, researchand development activities, accordingto Capital. Ro. “We are proud of ourteam, which numbers 13,000 in Roma-nia, and are looking forward to wel-coming the new employees in Sibiu,Timisoara, Brasov, Carei, Nadab andIasi,” said Christian von Albrichsfeld,R&D director at Continental Romania,during a ceremony for the inaugurationof its new building, quoted by Capital.ro.The building in Sibiu will have twofloors with a total surface area of 7,000sqm, including a laboratory of over1,000 sqm.
HORECACity Grill Group to open new lo-cation in Bucharest Old TownDragos Petrescu, owner of City GrillGroup, has announced that the groupwill open its 16th restaurant in Bucharest,Trattoria Buongiorno la Lido, in mid-June. New openings could also followin Cluj, Timisoara, Iasi and Constanta
but the group is still analyzing the mar-ket prospects. “Bucharest is an inter-esting market, a lucky one, where theaverage income is almost EUR 1,500per family. Taking into considerationthis income, consumers are used to go-ing out for dinner without needing aspecial occasion, unlike those fromprovincial towns and cities where theygo out for particular celebrations,” saidPetrescu. He added that a Bucharestresident pays EUR 5 for a daily menuand can make a habit of it.
MEDIALocal media market reachesEUR 305 mln net value lastyearThe Romanian media market kept astable course between 2012 and 2013,at a net value of EUR 305 million, ac-cording to estimations in the MediaFact Book 2014, a survey carried outby Initiative Media. This year, the marketis expected to maintain the same value.In 2013, the TV media market stood atEUR 193 million net. According to Ini-tiative Media, emergency ordinance
OUG 25/2013 did not affect volumes onthe market thanks to clients’, agencies’and TV stations’ having allocated morepeople, time and legal resources tomaintain cohesion and quality. Else-where, the radio market stagnated,while print media saw a 10 percent de-cline in 2013. Digital was the only medi-um that saw growth last year, at 12 per-cent. This year, Media Fact Book fore-casts the digital realm will increase by8 percent.
PROPERTYBCR successfully bids EUR 50mln for Silver Mountain projectin fire saleBCR has acquired the real estate projectSilver Mountain, based in Poiana Brasov,and a piece of land near Snagov Lakefor around EUR 52 million. It success-fully bid for the plots in a tender or-ganized on May 23 by Euro Insol, thejudicial liquidator of INR ManagementReal Estate. The lender paid EUR 49.7million for the residential project, whichhas 171 apartments, 176 parking spaces,
Laugh and Romania laughs with you… Laughter is said to be the best medicine, which means Bucharest was a healthier place to be last week. DirectorGeorge Mihaita convinced many of the great actors of the Comedy Theatre and other institutions to take part in the12th edition of the Romanian Comedy Festival, which included theater performances, book launches, photoexhibitions and Romanian movie projections.
two commercial spaces, a multifunc-tional building, access roads and addi-tional land of 206,500 sqm. The bankwas the biggest creditor of INR Man-agement Real Estate, which enteredinto bankruptcy in January 2014. BCRhad claimed EUR 86 million, accountingfor 98 percent of the total receivables.
Photo: M
ihai Constantineanu
MOST READ www.business-review.eu
1 Second richest man in Romaniaprosecuted for bribery after hislawyer commits suicide
2 Joe Biden’s blunder: ConfusesPrime Minister Ponta with thepresident
3 Bulgarian salad voted best foodin Europe. Sarmale come third
4 Governing alliance dominates EUelections in Romania with 41 pctof votes. Who are the new MEPs?
5 Artist Mirela Traistaru gives liveart performance at Art Safari
4 NEWS www.business-review.eu Business Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
EU ELECTIONS
None of the local extremists run-ning for seats in the EuropeanParliament was elected by the
around 5.7 million Romanians who head-ed to the polls last Sunday, in the thirdround of elections since the countryjoined the EU in 2007.
According to preliminary figures fromthe central elections bureau BEC, thecenter-left wing coalition USD came topwith 37.6 percent of the votes, seizinghalf of the 32 seats allotted to Romanianlawmakers in the EU Parliament. Thecoalition comprises the left-wing partyPSD, led by Prime Minister Victor Ponta,alongside the left-leaning UNPR andcenter-right PC.
The liberal PNL got 15 percent, andthe right-wing PDL 12.2 percent. Inde-pendent candidate Mircea Diaconu, awell known actor in Romania, won 6.81percent of the vote, while the Union ofHungarians in Romania, UDMR, secured6.3 percent. The list was rounded outby the right-wing PMP with 6.2 percent.The party was set up this January andenjoys the full support of President Tra-ian Basescu.
No extremist politicians were suc-cessful in the ballot. Dan Diaconescu, aself-made millionaire and former mediaowner, failed to garner enough supportwith his extreme left-wing party PPDDtaking only 3.67 percent of the votes.
Across Europe the most significantgains were made by far-right and Eu-rosceptic parties, such as the Front Na-tional in France, UKIP in Britain, the
People’s Party in Denmark and the Syrizain Greece.
“(e.n. The Romanian) people did nottrust the populism of extremist parties,”said Doru Frantescu, director of VoteWatch Europe, an independent pollsterbased in Brussels, quoted by RFI radiostation. He added that Romanian politi-cians have reached a consensus regardingthe further integration of the countryin the EU.
Frantescu attributed the extremistparties’ surge in support to the difficulteconomic climate and current unem-ployment levels across most EU membercountries
“Differences are seen in the north-south axis. Southern states such asGreece, Spain, Portugal and Italy areheading towards the extreme left in re-action to the austerity, while northernstates such as the UK, France and theNetherlands headed to the extreme rightbecause on top of the economic issuesthey have the immigration problem,
which right-wing extremists have capi-talized on,” said Frantescu.
More Romanians go to thepolls to choose MEPsThe turnout in Romania increased byclose to 5 percentage points against theprevious election to stand at 32.2 percent.The average turnout in the EU 28 was43.09 percent, close to 1 percentagepoint above the 2009 ballot.
This was the first round of electionsfollowing the outbreak of the global fi-nancial crisis, which has posed existentialthreats to the Euro zone. During this period, Romania has implementeda tough austerity program designed to strengthen its public finances. Economists now say the country is in better shape from a macroeconomicperspective, although domestic consumption and wages in the privatesector have not registered significantgains.
Romania has an ongoing EUR 4 billionstand-by agreement with the Interna-tional Monetary Fund and the EuropeanCommission, the executive arm of theEU. The program aims to keep the coun-try’s reform of key sectors such as health-care and energy on track. Furthermore,Romania is aiming to adopt the euro in2009, although economists have said itwill take at least a decade for the localeconomy to become strong enough tocompete with the 18 members of theEuro zone bloc. ∫
Ovidiu Posirca
Romania dodges extremist wavein European Parliament elections
Collaborating withclients in order toachieve resultsthat improve theircompanies is ourjob. It’s whatwe’re constantlyworking on in or-der to reach the
business objectives that count at theend of the day. For this partnership towork, a set of principles should be re-spected: value-adding work orientedtowards reaching objectives, all basedon strong ethical principles. Still, thisis all easier said than done. To facili-tate this process and meet the pro-
fessional standards that we believe in,we follow a set of guidelines that helpsthe communication between profes-sionals in different companies, prac-tice areas and even different parts ofthe world.
Collaboration, especially involvingclients, is a relationship that requirestrust. This is how it should be, but howdo you get to this point? Trust followsmet expectations, and meeting expec-tations requires that both parties un-derstand each other and commit toshared goals and shared responsibility.So, the first rule is to be clear aboutyour demands and expectations, andon the terms of the collaboration.
Then, throughout the project, youmust keep in mind the big picture andyour objectives. Each contributorcomes with a scenario regarding howthings should be done and – why notsay it? – with an ego. It’s important tosay “no” to things that you know willhave a negative impact on the project,but also to say “yes” to new ideas, aslong as it helps to meet the objective.For a given period of time, we’re all ateam!
Be systematic! A collaborativeprocess may have multiple phasesand include various people. This is whyit’s important to have a systematic ap-proach to the work you do together,
the feedback you gather, and the entireprocess. This is mandatory for a clearimage of your work and to really helpyour client. Transparency is key.
Successful business collaborationis a challenge for professionals in allareas. Still, consulting is about cross-ing boundaries to provide clients withthe know-how they need in a givencontext. In most cases, this is whatmakes the difference!
CEO CORNERRobert Maxim, Ensight Management Consulting
Business collaboration, a prerequisite of success
More Romanians voted in this year’sEU Parliament elections
WEEK AHEADJune 5Realty 2014Business Review is proud to continueits 13-year tradition of organizing theRealty event. Realty provides network-ing and learning support for industryprofessionals, who want to spot newopportunities and trends, find potentialpartners, meet decision makers andbuild a profitable business on the Ro-manian real estate market. Register forthe event by logging on to business-re-view.eu or sending an email [email protected], Howard Johnson Hotel, PlatinumHall
June 3Meet the ManFlorin Campeanu, CEO Rentrop &Straton, is the event speaker for Meetthe Man!, organized by Women in Busi-ness Bucharest. The event topic will beMarketing in the Digital Era.19.00, Capital Plaza Hotel
Energy Investors SummitThe EIS is an interactive platform aim-ing to bring together strategic compa-nies in the Romanian energy sector,government officials, experts, high-profile bankers, representatives of in-vestment banks and funds andinternational investors. It seeks to iden-tify avenues of cooperation in the en-ergy field between key players,investors and decision makers. Partic-ipation is free of charge. Please regis-ter at: [email protected], JW Marriott Bucharest GrandHotel, Constanta Hall
6 www.business-review.euBusiness Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
An array of financing programs from both European and Romanian institutions is meant to boost entrepreneur-ial skills, which are sorely lacking in Romania, especially in some areas. Discussions among experts present atBusiness Review’s SMEs How To event last week revealed that the issue may not be lack of money, but lack ofproper management.
SMEs How To Local entrepreneurshipand management struggling
1. Mihaela Matei, special projects com-munication officer, Ernst&Young Romania 2. Ovidiu Nicolescu, presidentof the National Council of Private Smalland Medium Enterprises in Romania 3. Petra Szavics, secretary of state,Ministry of European Funds 4. Cezar Iliu, GD, General Directorate for SMEs and Cooperation, Department forSMEs, Business Environment andTourism, Ministry of Economy 5. Adri-ana Record, executive director, TheFrench Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry in Romania 6. Daniela Marin,program director, EBRD Business Advisory Services
∫ OTILIA HARAGA
Approximately 51.7 percent of managers and entrepreneurs partici-pating in the survey, The State ofHealth of Romanian Management in2013, carried out by the NationalCouncil of Private Small and MediumEnterprises (CNIPMMR), said Roman-ian management performed belowthe EU level, while 42.8 percent be-lieve management in Romania isworse than the Central and EasternEurope average as well, said OvidiuNicolescu, president of the CNIPMMR,during the SMEs How To event organ-ized by Business Review on May 26,attended by members of the SMEcommunity.
Moreover, 76 percent of respon-dents claim managers in Romania areunable to confront the financial crisisand its consequences.
Among the main flaws affectingmanagement in Romania, the mostcited was a failure to motivate em-ployees, with 46.53 percent of respon-dents identifying this as an issue. Also,45 percent pointed to deficient ornon-existent strategies and policies inorganizations.
“Romania has a historic handicapwhen it comes to motivating employ-ees, which derives from the commu-nist period when it was the onlycountry in the world where negativemotivation was national policy,” saidNicolescu.
Companies can motivate employ-ees via material-financial tools suchas salaries and bonuses, and/or bymoral-spiritual means, which areeven more important, added the pres-ident.
“When authorities grant 5-7 percentsalary increases to everybody in thepublic sector, no one is motivated.Salary growth must be complex anddifferential, based on performance,”commented Nicolescu.
Organizations can motivate theiremployees by taking several steps.The first is to diagnose the state of theorganization from the global, eco-nomic and managerial point of view,with a focus on human resources.Second, draft a strategy and policy forthe company.
“Less than 15 percent of RomanianSMEs say they have a strategy and
1 2 3 4
5 6most of them are unprofessional,”commented Nicolescu. Third, designthe managerial system of the com-pany. Fourth, a special motivationmodule should be devised for the or-ganization. Last but not least, theplan should be implemented andevaluated.
“However, in Romania, less thanone in six companies resort to consul-tancy, which is a huge mistake,” saidNicolescu. “We are lacking basic en-trepreneurial education.”
Shortage of entrepreneurialventuresThe number of SMEs in Romania islow in relation to the population.
“In Romania there are just over400,000 enterprises compared to apopulation of 19 million. By contrast,in a neighboring state with half thispopulation there are 430,000 SMEs,”said Cezar Iliu, general director of theGeneral Directorate for SMEs and Co-operation, in the Department forSMEs, Business Environment andTourism, of the Ministry of Economy,during the SMEs How To event.
Moreover, most companies in Ro-mania are micro- or small enterpriseswhile the mid-size stratum is verythin.
Bucharest exceeds the Europeanentrepreneurial average by 22 percent.Currently, 27 percent of GDP is gener-ated in Bucharest and Ilfov County.
Other counties with rich entrepre-neurial activity are Constanta, Clujand Brasov, while Arad and Bihor arealso starting to make a name forthemselves on this front.
On the other hand, there are 28counties in Romania where entrepre-neurship is limited or lacking entirely.
Currently, 46 percent of the population lives in rural areas, where the economy is at subsistencelevels.
“Romania is having a hard time
stimulating entrepreneurship aroundthe country,” said Iliu. “The Roman-ian entrepreneurial spirit is suffering.”
Regarding the current financingprograms (presented on the right),Iliu said there has been no shortage of applicants. “Only one program was less interesting, involving thetransfer of businesses from oneowner to another, active between2009 and 2010, which we had to drop,”said Iliu.
Apart from European Union fundsand those placed at the disposal ofRomanian SMEs by the national gov-ernment, the EBRD, via its BusinessAdvisory Services division, also hasan active program giving SMEs accessto business consultancy in fields suchas marketing, ITC, environment, or-ganization and financial management.Through the BAS, the EBRD providesnon-reimbursable co-financing of be-tween 25 and 75 percent of the net
l EC COSME program for all SMEs EUR 2.3 billion budget for 2014-2020
l EC Horizon 2020 program for innovating SMEs and mid-capsEUR 78 billion budget for 2014-2020
l Romanian program for settingup and development of micro-enterprises by young entrepreneurs11,650 newly founded SMEs15,000 created jobs RON 21 million allocated budgetfor 2014
l Romanian program to developentrepreneurial skills in youngsters and access to startfinancing130 beneficiary SMEs300 created jobs, at leastRON 13 million allocated budgetfor 2014
l Romanian de minimis aidscheme for investments madeby SMEs1,111 beneficiary SMEs3,000 created jobs, at leastRON 500 million allocated budget2014-2015
l Romanian program for developing the entrepreneurialculture in women managers inthe SME sector12 women entrepreneurs24 created jobs, at leastRON 500,000 allocated budget for2014
l Romanian-Swiss Program forSMEs CHF 28.5 million total budgetCHF 20 million, Swiss contributionCHF 8.5 million, CEC Bank contribution284 estimated granted loans, atleast
Financing programs for SMEs**
7www.business-review.euBusiness Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
7. Sergiu Negut, managing partner, Mindit
8. Colin Lovering, managing director, Achieve International
9. Alina Georgescu, sales manager, Ymens
10. Daniel Kearvell, managing director, DHL Romania
11. Claudia Stroescu, SME Business Developer, Air France &
KLM Romania
7 8
11
9 10
costs of consultancy projects. Themaximum value of grants is EUR10,000.
“The limitation is due to our per-sonnel capacity. We finance 60-70programs per year. A company can obtain funds of up to EUR 10,000in one single tranche. We grant fi-nancing of up to EUR 700,000 peryear,” said Daniela Marin, program di-rector at EBRD Business AdvisoryServices.
SMEs applying for this programmust be registered in Romania, haveRomanian and private majority capi-tal, have been active for at least twoyears, and have at most 250 employ-ees and a turnover of up to EUR 50
million. Companies in fields such asbanking, spirits, tobacco, gambling,weapons and military technology arenot eligible.
IT solutions can help SMEsgain competitive edgeApart from fighting on the financingfront, Romanian SMEs can boost their competitive edge by applying ITsolutions that can optimize their busi-ness and plug some of the financialleaks.
Alina Georgescu, sales manager ofYmens Romania, points out a para-dox: Romania is sixth in the internetspeed rankings, and yet 47 percent ofRomanian SMEs do not use software
solutions. Only 38 percent make in-vestments in IT, and just 27 percenthave a website. Even worse, only 4 percent make online transac-tions and just 8.5 percent use cloud solutions.
Bogdan Balaci, CEO of cloudprovider Ymens, told BR that cloudcomputing technology allows SMEsto access the same applications andservices that were once available onlyto enterprise organizations. “In amore and more dynamic market, anSME using cloud is agile, technologi-cally updated and competitive,” hecommented.
Furthermore, the cloud bringsgreat opportunities for optimizing op-erational costs. “In Europe, up to 81percent of companies using cloud re-ported cost reductions, while 41 per-cent saw productivity increase and 35percent gained new business,” saidthe CEO.
Balaci added, “In Romania, anYmens case study revealed that amedium distribution company in-creased the number of business op-portunities by 35 percent and thenumber of net new customers by 7percent. These were the results re-ported by the firm after only threemonths of using cloud solutions inorder to better manage the relation-ships with customers.”
l Romanian program for supporting craftsmanship8 regional fairs to promotecraftspeople200 participants, at leastRON 1 million allocated budgetfor 2014
l Romanian program to developand modernize the trade ofproducts and services225 beneficiary SMEs, at least550 created jobs, at leastRON 18.04 million allocated for2014
l National multi-annual budgetfor setting up and developingtechnological and business incubators13 founded incubators300 created jobsRON 6 million allocated budgetfor 2014
l Romania HUB project – Romania, the Country Of Young Entrepreneurs8 Romania HUB spaces, at least80 sealed partnerships, at least960 students in internships in2014192 Startup Days, at least
*Source: Ministry of Economy** Business Review selection
8 FOCUS www.business-review.euBusiness Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
Global crisis, local troublesdog insurance marketThe local insurance industry is still dealing with the difficulties caused by the financial crisis, as well as somehomegrown troubles. While it has made significant steps towards maturity, it is still an emerging market. Specialists told Business Review about the current state of the sector and shared their predictions of what’s next.
waiting for the existing shareholdersto support the plan as they said theyintended to do during the AGEA de-bates,” said representatives of KPMGAdvisory, the special administrator ofthe insurer. Astra is controlled indi-rectly by businessman Dan Adamescuthrough Nova Group Investments Ro-mania, which owns 72.68 percent ofits shares, and Epsilon Estate Providerwith 27.02 percent.
But amid the turmoil besetting thelocal insurance scene, there is somegood news. The Romanian Post is anew entry on the market through thelaunch of Posta Broker Asigurare. Thenew entity is totally controlled by theNational Romanian Post Company
and will soon apply for authorizationto operate on the insurance brokeragemarket. “The company will presentthe documentation to the FSA andbrokerage activity is expected to startimmediately,” Dan Dumitrescu, Ro-manian Post spokesperson, told Me-diafax.
Car-dominated market stallsAccording to preliminary data pub-lished by the FSA, gross written pre-miums (general and life insurance)posted an increase of less than 1 per-cent last year, while written premi-ums for general insurance increasedby about 3 percent. Market data put
the total volume of gross written pre-miums at RON 8.29 billion (EUR 1.88billion) last year. This marked a gainof just 0.42 percent on 2012. “As forthe insurance market’s opportunity togrow and develop, there is potentialbut I don’t think it will happen in 2014.Although some insurance categorieswill post an increase, I expect overallstagnation for the market,” says AncaBabaneata, CEO at Gothaer AsigurariReasigurari. “If we look strictly atpolicies, the Romanian market isdominated by car insurance. But bothGothaer and other insurers on themarket want to see development onother non-car business lines too. Forexample, 30 percent of our portfolio
There may be trouble ahead: local difficulties have beset the insurance market
∫ ANDA SEBESI
Romanian insurers are currently reel-ing after a series of blows to the in-dustry’s reputation. Despite havingmade significant steps toward matu-rity in the past few years, the local in-surance market has made variousfalse moves that have made it lookunstable and uncertain. In mid May,prosecutors and police conducted 49searches at Omniasig headquartersand branches in Bucharest and na-tionwide, as part of a criminal inves-tigation into abusive professionalpractices and forgery. According toMediafax, the general manager of thecompany and 40 other Omniasigmanagers are prime suspects in theforging of insurance policies, a crimethat deprived the state coffers ofabout RON several millions.
Misu Negritoiu, president of theFinancial Supervisory Authority(FSA), recently assured both the pub-lic and Omniasig’s customers that thesituation was under control. Headded that Omniasig was well capital-ized. “The company’s shareholdershave injected over EUR 100 million inthe past two years and now it is doingwell in terms of solvability and liquid-ity. It also has enough technical re-serves,” noted Negritoiu. In addition,Omniasig representatives told themedia that all of its issued policieswere safe and valid, and that the com-pany maintained its commitment torespect all of its contractual obliga-tions to its customers, regardless ofthe results of the investigation. Omni-asig is part of Vienna Insurance Group(Austria), which owns a stake of over99 percent in the insurer. The Aus-trian group also owns BCR Asiguraride Viata and Asirom.
The situation at Astra has alsocaused concern on the local insurancemarket. In mid May the company’sshareholders approved a plan to grad-ually increase the company’s sharecapital by RON 490 million. The firsttranche stands at about RON 70 mil-lion. The measure was taken in orderto relaunch Astra’s activity and im-prove its prudential indicators. “Thesuccess of the recovery plan proposedby us and approved by the FSA is sig-nificantly dependent on the supportof Astra shareholders. Yet we are still
FOCUS 9www.business-review.eu Business Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
is CASCO and we don’t want that fig-ure to rise. Instead, we intend to con-solidate our position and developsegments like property, agro, travel,warranties, products for SMEs andspecialized industries like renew-ables.”
Macroeconomic indicators have asignificant influence on the insurancemarket, but their effects start to bevisible after 9-12 months. Correlationwith other markets, like the auto sec-tor, is much more obvious. “The de-cline of the car market in 2013generated a significant drop in CASCO insurance. In such a context,Groupama managed to maintain itsvolume of written premiums on thisbusiness line and become the secondbiggest CASCO insurer,” says CalinMatei, deputy general manager atGroupama Asigurari.
Life insurance market struggles to survive2013 was another tough year for thelife insurance market as a result of thepoor economic growth, limited op-portunities for individuals to save andthe various strategies adopted bycompanies active in the industry. Ac-cording to FSA data, the Romanianlife insurance market dropped by 8.27
percent on 2012, to reach total grosswritten premiums of RON 1.65 billion,while in the first two months of 2014they decreased by 6.96 percent on thesame period of 2013, to RON 243.45million. The fall is mainly due to thereporting adjustments made by acompany on the local life insurancescene. “The life insurance markethasn’t managed to improve its posi-tioning even though interest rates arelow and life insurance policies havebecome more competitive. From ourperspective this is contradictory,” sayrepresentatives of Allianz Tiriac. Theyadd that the company will remainproactive on this market segment andare convinced that life insuranceproducts will be increasingly consid-ered profitable alternatives that com-bine savings with financial protection.
“It is possible that deductibility willboost the life insurance segment,”they add.
Marius Popescu, general managerat ING Asigurari de Viata, says that thepoorly funded public sector has madeRomanians think more carefullyabout their financial protection needsand the benefits that a life insurancepolicy can offer. “This is a qualitativeevolution that will consolidate as in-comes increase again. It will have apositive influence on the life insur-ance industry,” says Popescu. As forthe main trends, the GM says that in-surers are focused on developing themarket and increasing the benefits fortheir customers. “Eleven playerslaunched fifteen life insurance prod-ucts last year. This confirms that com-panies are seeking to offer productsthat are adapted to the current needsof the public,” adds the ING generalmanager. According to him, the firsttwo months of 2014 confirm that cus-tomers prefer traditional productsthat are affordable and simple.
“We estimate an increase of below 5percent for the life insurance marketin 2014, excluding the adjustments ofgross written premiums made by alocal life insurance company. But ithas significant potential to grow onthe long term, considering the size of
population, poor penetration rate oflife insurance policies and the greatneed for protection. Last but not least,the deterioration of demographic in-dicators and difficulties that the Ro-manian state faces in providing adecent level of social protection havemade people aware of the importanceof saving through the private systemin order to supplement their retire-ment income,” says Popescu.
Health insurance looking robustOne visible trend on the local insur-ance market in 2013 was the slight in-crease in RCA prices. “From ourperspective, if this trend continues itwill show that things are moving to-wards realistic and sustainable pricesand a better market situation. Clarify-ing the legal framework for compul-sory home insurance is anothersignificant step for the market,” sayAllianz Tiriac representatives. Mateiof Groupama Asigurari agrees that thelocal sector is on its way to consolida-tion and maturity. Although RCA andCASCO make up a significant weightin insurers’ portfolios, top companiesare paying more attention to otherbusiness lines. “The majority of insur-
ers try to find a balance between theirmarket share and profitability. As forus, we chose last year to cut signifi-cantly our exposure on the RCA segment and concentrate our effortsand attention on new customer segments and the quality of the serv-ices attached to our products,” addsMatei.
As for the most dynamic segmentof the market, specialists say thathealth insurance products were ridinga wave last year. “At Allianz Tiriac,group health insurance postedgrowth in 2013. It is encouraging andshows increased interest from em-ployers in such products, which areoffered as a benefit in salary packages.This could be supported and consoli-dated by increasing the sales of suchproducts to individuals too,” they add. This year the company launchedSanaPro, a health insurance for individuals. Elsewhere, last yearGroupama launched, in partnershipwith Regina Maria, Integrated Med-ical Insurance, a product that com-bines the benefits of medicalinsurance with those of a medicalsubscription. “There are over 30,000insured individuals one year since thelaunch,” adds Matei of Groupama.
A long march to maturityRomania is without doubt still anemerging market, and so too is thelocal insurance sector. The insurancepenetration rate is still very low, farbelow the figures in more developedcountries in the region.A mature mar-ket needs stability, and requires asolid, coherent and predictable legal-institutional framework that enablescompanies to develop long-termstrategies and forecasts. Another fac-tor is the financial stability of marketplayers and their likelihood of de-faulting on the obligations assumedin their insurance contracts. “Last butnot least, profitability is an indicatorof maturity. And the Romanian insur-ance market has posted losses foreight years now,” say representativesof Allianz Tiriac.
Insurance across CEEAccording to a study conducted byGenerali PPF Holding (GPH) in 2013,Central and Eastern Europe is charac-terized by large variations in house in-surance. The average annual houseinsurance premium ranges from EUR30 in Bulgaria to over EUR 167 inSlovenia. In addition, three quartersof Hungarians have house insurance,compared to 7 percent of Bulgarians.In Romania the figure stands at 43percent. The study also found thatSlovenians typically insure theirhouse for over EUR 150,000, com-pared to EUR 32,000 in Croatia andEUR 23,500 in Bulgaria. The studyused data from the home insuranceportfolios of Generali companies innine Central and Eastern Europeancountries.
anda.sebesi @business-review.ro
Company GWP (RON mln)
1. Astra Asigurari (e) 1,0702. Allianz Tiriac 9193. Omniasig VIG 8814. Groupama Asigurari 7275. Uniqa Asigurari 5706. ING Asigurari de Viata 5607. Asirom VIG 5448. Euroins Romania 5139. Carpatica Asig 482
10. Generali Romania 439
(e) - estimateGWP - Gross Written Premiums
Top 10 insurance companies in Romania in 2013 (total market)
Source: ww
w.insuranceprofile.ro
Company GWP (RON mln)
1. ING Asigurari de Viata 5602. Metropolitan Life (e) 2553. BCR Asigurari 221
de Viata VIG (e)4. Allianz Tiriac 955. Asirom VIG 896. Generali Romania 847. BRD Asigurari de Viata 708. Grawe Romania 509. Eurolife ERB 44
Asigurari de Viata10. Groupama Asigurari 42
(e) - estimateGWP - Gross Written Premiums
Top 10 life insurance companies in 2013
Source: ww
w.insuranceprofile.ro
Calin Matei, deputy general managerat Groupama Asigurari
Anca Babaneata, CEO Gothaer Asigurari Reasigurai
Marius Popescu, general manager atING Asigurari de Viata
10 PROPERTY www.business-review.euBusiness Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
NEPI and Ovidiu Sandor prepare to startsecond The Office building in Cluj-Napoca
Is a new real estate cycle underway?
After delivering the first building of The Office, a class A project located in down-town Cluj-Napoca, last week, real estate investment fund New Europe Property In-vestments (NEPI) and Romanian businessman Ovidiu Sandor are ready to start thesecond building, which should be delivered in the second half of 2015.
∫ SIMONA BAZAVAN
EUR 26 million was invested in the firstphase (in 19,000 sqm of built area) fromthe owners’ own funds and the financ-ing has now been secured to start thesecond phase (18,000 sqm), said Sandorduring the official opening event. Theinvestment in the first building includesthe price paid for the land where theTricotaje Somesul plant was located.The total project will feature 54,000sqm and should be completed by 2016.
The Office is not the first partnershipbetween Sandor, shareholder and pres-ident of Moda-Tim, and NEPI. The busi-nessman is the developer of the CityBusiness Centre office project inTimisoara which he sold to NEPI inearly 2012 for about EUR 90 million.
More than half of the first phase hasalready been pre-leased, with thelargest tenant signed so far being ITcompany Yardi (which took 3,000 sqm).Tenants also include Deloitte, Three Pil-lar and National Instruments. LoriCollin, leasing manager at NEPI, is con-fident that the remaining part of thebuilding will be leased by the end of theyear, given the advanced stage of nego-tiations with several firms. Moreover,
“this will not increase the vacancy rateelsewhere in Cluj-Napoca” as there is ahuge demand for office space in the city,added Sandor. This is mostly fueled bycompanies already present in Cluj-Napoca that are expanding their busi-ness, but also by newcomers, mainlyfrom the IT sector.
Cluj-Napoca is Romania’s secondlargest city, and its trained workforce,location and infrastructure have seen itgrow to become the second most attrac-tive hub after Bucharest for BPOs andSSCs, say pundits. As a result, the townhas the second largest office market inthe country. The city’s modern officestock (class A and B) is estimated at119,000 sqm by JLL and 150,000 sqm byDTZ.
Moreover, the office market is facingconsiderable growth in terms of newstock with four office projects totalingmore than 50,000 sqm to be deliveredby yearend. In addition to The Office,2014 should also see the delivery ofUnited Business Centre Tower (10,000
sqm) from Iulius Group, the secondphase of Liberty Technology Park(13,400 sqm) by Fribourg Developmentand the second phase of Cluj BusinessCenter (8,000 sqm) from Felinvest, ac-cording to JLL data.
But Sandor says he is not concernedabout the competition. First, he com-mented, there is growing demand foroffice space in the city and second, TheOffice, due to the new concept it bringsto the local market, its size and location
“is and will remain for at least severalyears the prime office destination inCluj-Napoca”. Rents are from EUR 13-15/sqm/month.
Prices of old apartmentsin Bucharest down bymore than half since2008Asking prices for old apartments inBucharest have dropped by more thanhalf between the spring of 2008, thepeak of the Romanian residential mar-ket, and this April, according to datafrom real estate portal Imobiliare.ro. The steepest slump – almost 57 percent– was reported for studio flats (froman average of EUR 82,086 in 2008 toEUR 35,600 this April). Asking pricesfor one-bedroom apartments droppedby 55 percent (from EUR 123,003 in2008 to EUR 55,154 in April) and 54percent for two-bedroom flats (fromEUR 149,361 in 2008 to EUR 68,082this April).
One United Propertiessells four Bucharest flatsfor EUR 1.36 mlnFour Bucharest apartments located inthe One Floreasca Lake residentialcompound developed by One UnitedProperties have been bought by aninvestor for a combined EUR 1.36 mil-lion (VAT included), announced Cross-point Real Estate, the agency that brokered the transaction. The fourapartments are part of the project’sonly block currently under construc-tion, which should be completed bymid-2015. One Floreasca Lake features66 apartments in three four-storeyblocks.
Opus Land Developmentto invest EUR 10 mln insecond local residentialprojectReal estate developer Opus Land De-velopment will invest approximatelyEUR 10 million in its second residentialproject in Romania, according to Me-diafax. It will be located on a 2,300sqm plot of land the developer boughtearlier this year in the Barbu Vacarescuarea of Bucharest. Construction workswill most likely start in the first halfof 2014, according to company repre-sentatives.
Mega Image ups sharecapital by EUR 25.2 mlnto support expansionRetailer Mega Image increased its share capital by EUR 25.2 million inApril to finance the opening of new stores and the construction of awarehouse in Bucharest, according to Mediafax. The retailer currently operates a network of 310 branchesunder the retail brands Mega Image(supermarkets), Shop&Go (proximitystores) and AB Cool Food (only one store which sells exclusively frozen foods).
BRIEFS
Building blocks: The first phase of The Office saw EUR 26 million invested
∫ SIMONA BAZAVAN
The beginning of the year has seen thedelivery of two major office projects –Green Gate, developed by S Group inBucharest, and The Office, the largestsuch scheme in Cluj-Napoca, from realestate investment fund New EuropeProperty Investments (NEPI) and Ro-manian businessman Ovidiu Sandor.Others, like Skanska’s Green Court proj-ect in Bucharest to name just one, aredue to be completed by the end of theyear and more should follow.
While only two modern retailschemes are due to be completed in2014, both from NEPI, in Bucharest andTargu Jiu, several other large retail ven-tures such as Sonae Sierra and CaelumDevelopment’s ParkLake Plaza mall in
Bucharest and the first phase of CoresiBrasov, from Immochan, will be deliv-ered from next year.
On the residential sector, demandfor newly built homes is on the rise, anddespite the banks’ reluctance to financehousing projects, some developers haveannounced their intention to start con-struction. The beginning of the year hasalso seen several land transactions, andjudging from the statements of severaldevelopers, especially in the office sec-tor, others are likely to follow by the endof the year.
So, is a new real estate cycle under-way? Representatives of real estatefirms certainly think so. Demand forland is on the rise, they say, always thefirst sign of the developers’ return.Other market representatives are morecircumspect. Any fundamental change
can only come from the banks as theylend to both buyers and developers, andso far there haven’t been any significantchanges in this direction, say commen-tators.
To shed more light on this diver-gence of opinion, next week BR is or-ganizing a new edition of its nowtraditional Realty event, dedicated tothe real estate market. The event willbring together industry professionals,from developers and real estate servicefirms to bankers and representatives ofthe authorities. It will offer insight onthe latest market trends and providenetworking and learning support for in-dustry professionals.
To find out more, go to www.business-review.eu/br-events.
Courtesy of The O
ffice
PROPERTY 11www.business-review.eu Business Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
Government aimsto tackle unfaircompetition in real estateThe government is planning to tax property accordingto its use and not the legal status of the developer as isthe case now, according to a proposal included in theconvergence program submitted in April to the Euro-pean Commission, the executive arm of the EU.
∫ OVIDIU POSIRCA
Tax experts commented that thismeasure would help residential devel-opers, as they would have to pay less intaxes than under the current computa-tion mechanism.
“Another less obvious aspect is theelimination of ‘unfair competition’ be-tween the developers of residentialprojects depending on whether theyare individuals or companies,” DanielPetre, director at Deloitte Tax, told BR.
At present, the annual tax levied onproperty owned by companies canreach 1.5 percent of the building’s bookvalue, while an individual could pay upto ten times less for the same building.
“This difference has led to the distor-tion of competition in the rental mar-ket and so should be adjusted,”Alexandru Milcev, tax partner at pro-fessional services firm EY Romania,told BR.
However, companies will also haveto pay the new construction tax, so thepotential gain would be wiped out, ac-cording to Ramona Jurubita, tax part-ner and deputy head of taxation atprofessional services firm KPMG.
Authorities are also working withother scenarios for the property tax.They propose, for instance, the tax onbuildings be calculated for companiesas for individuals (based on surface, lo-cation and construction type). Only thetax rates would be different, depend-ing on the use of the building, but Ju-rubita said this would be hard toimplement because the country lackscomplete real estate records.
She suggested as an alternative theuse of independent experts’ evalua-tions in determining the taxable valueof buildings owned by both companiesand individuals. This would generateadditional costs that neither the localauthorities nor taxpayers would bewilling to pay.
“A quick and radical change in theproperty taxation system will probablynot be possible, owing to further obsta-cles, such as the costs of a major adap-tation of local tax authorities’ ITsystems and political resistance fromthe local authorities, but we will prob-ably see a gradual change in this re-spect in the coming years,” saidJurubita.
Flat rate: the property tax has concerned market players
12 CITY www.business-review.euBusiness Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
Swan’s pas de deux withprima ballerina Bianca Fota Bucharest National Opera is re-booting Romanian choreographer Gheorghe Iancu’s Swan Lake ballet, a twist onOleg Danovsky’s first staging which gave Iancu his inspiration. Since 2008, when Iancu first brought this per-formance to the stage, the artists have grown spiritually, artistically and physically, he says. Chief among them,prima ballerina assoluta Bianca Fota made her debut as Odette/Odile back then and returned this season. BRasked what it feels like to play the most coveted role in ballet.
OANA VASILIU
You had your debut on the Bucharest Na-tional Opera stage with this version ofSwan Lake, but in a different format. Wasit difficult to readapt?I consider the latest performance a pre-miere, mostly because the ballet com-pany is not the same as it was for the2008 premiere: several seasons havepassed and probably 80 percent of thecompany are newcomers. We started towork on this new performance in June
2013, and although the roles are thesame as in the previous performance,the approach was different.
What does Swan Lake mean to you?First and most important, Swan Lake isa dream that became reality, the dreamthat every little girl has when she startstaking ballet classes, and also the dreamof every classical ballet dancer. Theroles are all complex and it is difficult tostage as it has four acts and lasts almosttwo and a half hours. It also entails a va-riety of positive and negative feelings,according to the role you play in the per-formance.
This season, you are playing the main characters in the performance and also the Mother Queen. How hard it isto interpret three roles in the sameshow? My relationship with Swan Lake starteda long time ago, since when I haveplayed most of the roles, from a sup-porting character in the NeapolitanDance scene, on my debut, to the smallswan, big swan, Mother Queen andOdette, the most complex of all charac-ters.
In terms of interpretation, I think of Odette, Odile and the Mother Queen as distinct characters.
The Odette-Odile interpretation is atransition from positive to negative,quite simple to perform as the two char-acters have different personalities and Itreat them as separate entities.
But when it comes to the MotherQueen character, the performancechanges, as in my opinion this characterstands for Gheorghe Iancu’s immortalcreativity. From all the characters ofSwan Lake, which means a full range ofdancers, the Mother Queen’s dance hassomething special and unique, almostGheorghe Iancu himself.
How was your collaboration with chore-ographer Gheorghe Iancu for this per-formance?I have been working with GheorgheIancu for several years now and I havelearned to mix the choreographer’s de-manding technical requirements withmy own personality, as a ballet dancershould do.
Do you have a costume in this perform-ance that you enjoy particularly?Although is quite difficult to performwith the Mother Queen’s Cloak on stage,I believe it is the most beautiful cos-tume I have to wear for this perform-ance, both elegant and imposing.
How is the transition from the rehearsal room to the general rehearsaland then the performance before the general public?The surface of the stage loads me, giv-ing me energy.
As a mature dancer I can say that Idon’t have overwhelming emotions butconstructive ones when it comes to per-formances. Of course, I like it muchmore on stage with an audience want-ing to see what I and my colleagueshave to offer them.
This month, Bianca Fota will debut inIancu’s latest performance Women asMasa, on June 7, and in the main role ofLa Sylphide choreographed by JohanKobborg, on June 22.
She will also play the Queen Mother inSwan Lake, on June 11. All performancestake place at Bucharest National Opera,at 19.00.
l Gheorghe Iancu choreographer
“I believe that tradition draws thepublic, because what I have cho-sen to keep from the classical in-terpretation is the chef-d’oeuvreelement, which is immortal”.
l Johan Kobborgartistic director of the Romanian National Ballet
About Bianca Fota:“Her excellence, unique qualitiesand complete dedication serve asan inspiration, not only to herpresent colleagues, but to futuregeneration of Romanian femaledancers”.
l Iurie Florea conductor “A symbol of Russian ballet, thismasterpiece has become, overtime, a veritable emblem of uni-versal classical dance. Everymajor company has includedthis outstanding spectacle in itscreative repertoire. What I par-ticularly like about this new per-formance is that more pages ofTchaikovsky’s score are inter-preted than in other produc-tions”.
On the new productionof Swan Lake
Courtesy of B
ucharest National O
pera
CITY 13www.business-review.euBusiness Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
String theoryKnown as one of the most significant contemporaryspecialists in historical interpretation and pluckedstring instruments, such as the vihuela, lute and guitar,Spanish musician Jose Miguel Moreno was inBucharest for a concert organized by the Cervantes Institute. He talked to BR about his work restoring historical instruments and popularizing this type of interpretation.
DEBBIE STOWE
Director: Alex van WarmerdamStarring: Jan Bijvoet, Hadewych Minis,Jeroen Perceval, Alex van Warmerdam,Tom Dewispelaere, Sara HjortDitlevsenOn at: Grand Cinema and More, Holly-wood Multiplex. Cinemateca Union,Elvira Popescu (French Institute),NCRR (Peasant Museum)
It’s grim up north. Specifically, northernEurope. At least, it is according to theScandi noirs, with their rapes, murdersand pedophilia. Then there’s all thatpickled herring to eat. Grim. And ifDutch Palme d’Or nominee Borgman isanything to go by, things are just asbleak in the Netherlands.
Our titular anti-hero is… well, actu-ally I don’t know what he is. I spent thewhole film wondering and was no wiserby the end. Suffice it to say youwouldn’t welcome him into the bosomof your family home. Nor am I sure howto categorize the film. It’s not your typ-ical home invasion movie – they don’tinvolve shapeshifting. It’s not really afairy tale – they don’t feature swankysuburban show-homes and luxurysedans. It’s not exactly horror/fantasy –they are rarely as wry.
But despite being deliberately vagueabout his protagonist and genre, direc-tor Alex van Warmerdam has delivereda highly enjoyable and engaging thriller– with a dash of delicious black humor –which grips the viewer for most of itsnearly two-hour run time.
Borgman (Jan Bijvoet) starts out liv-ing in a pit in the forest. Property pricesthese days, eh? But he and his subter-ranean cohorts are forced to go on therun when a mob-handed priest turns up
and with his heavies smashes up thesylvan hideout. Scruffy Borgman thenpitches up in a posh neighborhood,where he starts knocking on doors toask if he can have a bath. Points for try-ing. Unsurprisingly he’s given shortshrift, even earning a beating from astressed out executive, Richard (JeroenPerceval), when he won’t take no for ananswer.
But Richard’s bleeding-heart liberalwife Marina (Hadewych Minis) takespity on the apparent hobo and hideshim in one of the family’s outhouses fora few days, feeding and nursing himwhile he recovers from his cuts andbruises. So begins the process by whichBorgman gradually insinuates himselfinto the family home and the minds ofits occupants, the couple, their threeyoung children and the Danish au pair(Sara Hjort Ditlevsen).
It’s a while until Borgman reveals histrue colors, and there is tension as thefilm trundles along leaving us wonder-ing what the bearded stranger’s inten-tions are. Even once we (sort of) know,it’s still impossible to predict exactlywhere things are heading.
Despite the bizarre tangents thestory takes, van Warmerdam is able toembed plenty of real-world comedy,with the earnestness and arrogance ofthe upper middle classes skewered asbrutally as some of the hapless victims.And Borgman’s motley crew of hench-men and women is also played for darklaughs.
As unsettling as it’s funny, as subur-ban as it’s otherworldly, Borgman is asmorgasbord of genres, but is an unfail-ingly intriguing and unique film. Onethat could only have been made inNorthern Europe.
FILM REVIEW MUSIC
Borgman
Divine intervention: mysterious Borgman is hunted by a heat-packing priest
music was written according to theRenaissance esthetics. And the Renais-sance esthetics of Romania is not thatsame as that of Germany or Spain. Andit keeps changing all the time. So thecontemporary sound is for contempo-rary taste and the sound of a vihuelabelongs to the esthetics of the 16th cen-tury. It is neither better nor worse. It isdifferent.
Technically, what makes it different? The construction of the instrument, itsshape, the type of strings that are used,the tension of the strings and also theuse of the techniques of the time. Toplay the vihuela one cannot use thetechniques of the modern guitar be-cause it wouldn’t sound of anything.One needs to use techniques appropri-ate to the vihuela. Likewise, if the tech-niques of the vihuela were used on amodern guitar, it would not make theright sound either.
What are you currently working on?I’ve been to Holland and Canada forsome programs involving otherbaroque instruments and I will be goingto Portugal too. Among the most recentprojects I’ve done was one involvingGerman music. I recorded [David] Kell-ner, [Johann Gottfried] Conradi andBach, ‘De Occulta Philosophia’.
Recordings by J.M. Moreno are availableat www.glossamusic.com.
SIMONA FODOR
What attracted you to historical inter-pretation?I like going to the original sources, rediscovering forgotten composers and also forgotten instruments. And,with this, being able to offer somethingvery big to the public, who normallydon’t have access to it. They have ac-cess to paintings, architecture but notto music.
How do you know you have managed toproduce an instrument as it was donecenturies ago?With some instruments it is easy be-cause there are many still left, for in-stance the post-romantic guitar or thebaroque guitar, with which there is noproblem, or the lute. There is a problemwith the vihuela (e.n. a 15th-16th cen-tury guitar-type string instrument inSpain, Portugal and Italy) because thereare only three left in the world and theyare not originals. But there is the musicof the period, and much written infor-mation.
How can the sound of a string instrumentin the 16th century be evaluated? Andhow is it different from the sound of acontemporary instrument?In the 16th century they were lookingfor a certain sound, just as they weredeveloping a specific poetry or archi-tecture. There is an esthetics of thetime that is very important. And so the
Courtesy of C
ervantes Institute
14 CITY www.business-review.euBusiness Review | June 2 - 8, 2014
FOUNDING EDITOR Bill AveryPUBLISHER Anca IonitaEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simona Fodor JOURNALISTS Otilia Haraga - seniorjournalist, Simona Bazavan, Ovidiu Posirca, Oana Vasiliu COPY EDITOR Debbie Stowe PHOTO EDITOR: Mihai ConstantineanuLAYOUT Beatric e Gheorghiu ART DIRECTOR Alexandru Oriean
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR George MoiseSALES & EVENTS DIRECTOROana MolodoiSALES & EVENTSSales managers: Ana-Maria Nedelcu,Oana Albu, Raluca ComanescuMARKETINGAna-Maria Stanca, Ana Maria Andrei,Iulia MizganPRODUCTION Dan MitroiDISTRI BUTION Eugen Musat
PUBLISHERBloc Notes Media ADDRESSNo. 10 Italiana St., 2nd floor, ap. 3Bucharest, Romania LANDLINEEditorial: 031.040.09.32Office: [email protected]@[email protected]
ISSN No. 1453 - 729X
Roxana Alexe is the new senior product develop-ment manager at Provident Finan-cial Romania. She has over ten yearsof professional experience in projectand product management and an-other ten years in financial analysis.During her career she has workedfor companies such as Citibank,where she has spent the past eightyears, ExxonMobil and Procter &Gamble. Alexe graduated from thePolytechnic University in Bucharestand holds an MBA from Central Eu-ropean University (CEU) in Hungary.
Constantin Bratu was elected ear-lier this month asthe new presidentof Eco – Rom Am-balaje, an organi-zation responsiblefor meeting the re-covery and recy-
cling targets for packaging intro-duced on the market. Bratu has beengeneral director of the Brewers ofRomania Association since 2005. Heis also on the boards of directors ofthe Romalimenta Federation, theRomanian Advertising Council (RAC)and the Brewers of Europe Associa-tion. He graduated from the Facultyof Finance, Insurance, Banking andStock Exchange, part of the Academyof Economic Studies in Bucharest,and holds an executive MBA fromAsebuss in partnership with Kenne-saw State University. Bratu is re-placing Mugurel Radulescu, CocaCola HBC Romania public affairs andcommunication manager for Roma-nia and Moldova, who had held theposition for ten years.
Hans Korthas joined Romanian ERP providerTotalSoft as international sales di-rector. He has 20 years of experi-ence in technical sales, with a focuson IT, gained at international compa-nies such as Microsoft, ReadSoft andHP, where he held management po-
sitions at regional and global level.Kort has a significant background insales management at internationallevel, having worked in countries in-cluding the Netherlands, Russia andSweden. He graduated from the Uni-versity of Amsterdam, and speaksfluent Dutch, German, Russian,Spanish and English.
Maarten Koudenburg is the new supplychain director forHeineken Roma-nia, a role he willtake up on June 1.He is replacing EdVan Willengen inthe management
team, following the latter’s appoint-ment as supply chain director forHeineken Russia. Koudenbergstarted working for HeinekenNetherlands in 2001, since when hehas held several positions in thesupply chain team. In 2010, he wasappointed supply chain director forSociete Nouvelle de Brasserie inTunisia and in 2012 he took over theposition of area supply chain directorfor the Africa and Middle East region.
Alina Mihailahas been promoted to partner byNTMO, the associated law firm ofKPMG Legal in Romania. She hasbeen assisting clients in various sec-tors for 15 years, advising them oncommercial and corporate law. Mi-haila has worked on projects involv-ing energy and utilities, real estate,privatization, mergers & acquisitionsand corporate restructuring.
Sebastian Olteanuhas been promoted to partner byNTMO, the associated law firm ofKPMG Legal in Romania. He hasworked in the local legal system for12 years and has specialized in fi-nancial services and M&As. Olteanuhas advised clients on commercialand corporate law, covering bankingand finance, investments and trans-actions.
WHO’S NEWSBR welcomes information for Who’s News. Submissions may be edited fo r length and clarity. Get in touch at [email protected]
Bucharest National OperaPremiere: June 6, 19.00Next performances: June 8, June 13,June 15Director Alfred Kirchner presents to theBucharest public his latest performance,Tosca, the opera that Giaccomo Puccinihimself described as “not a romanticand poetic opera, but a passionate, sear-ing and somber one”.
The first performances will be con-ducted by the Canadian Keri Lynn Wilson,known to Romanian audiences from theGeorge Enescu International Festival andother events at the Bucharest NationalOpera. The other special guests are so-prano Iano Tamar, tenors Marcello Gior-dani, Daniel Magdal and Bogdan Za-hariea and baritone Luis Ledesma.
German director Alfred Kirchnerstaged Puccini’s Tosca in 2001, in Frank-furt, and seven years later revived theproduction with the scenographer KarlKneidl at the Viennese Volksoper. TheAustrian staging was replicated by theBucharest National Opera and will pre-miere on June 6.
Tosca contains depictions of torture,murder and suicide, as well as some ofPuccini's best-known lyrical arias, andhas inspired memorable performances
by many of the world’s leading operasingers. Puccini’s aim was to create arealistic world on stage that included thespecific locale of the drama, so he in-cluded in his music sounds that give thesense of a real place, as in the openingof Act III, notes the Royal Opera House.
DON’T MISSTOSCA, GIACCOMO PUCCINI
Conductor Keri Lynn Wilson is a familiar face for the Romanian public
Tenor Marcello Giordani
