Business Arena Magazine nr. 91 - Europe begins slow return to normality

E n j o y t h e Q u a l i t y ***** A d m i r e

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No.91/2020

Economies and businesses struggle to stay afloat amid coronavirus shock pages 02 - 19

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LUXURY & LIFESTYLE

TOP BRAND pages 38 - 70

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EDITORIAL

by

Cristian Cojanu

EUROPE BEGINS SLOW RETURN TO NORMALITY As the continent slowly emerges from long COVID-19 lockdown, the European Commission's Spring 2020 European Economic Forecast paints a sobering picture of economic tough times ahead.

"In the current quarter, economic output in the EU is set to be almost 16% lower than in the last quarter of 2019. Although activity is expected to pick up again with the justinitiated, gradual easing of containment measures, the contraction in EU GDP this year is expected to be 7½%, far deeper than during the financial crisis in 2009," Maarten Wervey, Director General Economic and Financial Affairs, wrote in the foreword to the report.

The report expects the EU's GDP to rebound in 2021 by 6%. "The COVID-19 crisis is a symmetric shock hurting all Members States. Their strong economic interconnectedness is magnifying the aggregate demand and supply shocks. While the recovery looks set to be incomplete in almost all countries, the impact of the crisis and the way Member States will emerge from it is set to be uneven."

For Romania, the report projects a steep real GDP decline in 2020, after several years of solid growth. "Private consumption, the main driver of growth in recent years, is expected to be impacted severely by the lockdown measures. Uncertainty is expected to hurt investment decisions, while net exports are projected to contribute positively to growth. Unemployment is set to increase while inflation is forecast to ease due to the drop in oil prices. In 2021, real GDP is projected to rebound, though not to precrisis levels. The budget deficit is projected to increase significantly as the fiscal measures required to fight the COVID-19 crisis come on top of past fiscal slippages."

Thus, the country's real GDP is expected to contract by 6% this year and rebound by over 4% in 2021. Private consumption is seen increasing gradually and contributing positively to growth next year.

The report also indicates that the general government deficit is forecast to exceed 9% of GDP in 2020. "The preexisting expansionary trend largely driven by pension increases is set to be reinforced by the impact of the COVID-19 crisis." Moreover, the debt-to-GDP ratio is forecast to rise from 35.2% in 2019 to over 54% in 2022.

Identifying similar economic threats, Moody's and Fitch changed their respective outlooks on Romania's ratings to negative from stable. "The revision of the Outlook reflects the substantial worsening in Romania´s public finances expected in the short-term as the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic aggravates an already weak fiscal position," a Fitch Ratings press release pointed out, emphasizing that deficit was forecast to widen to 8% of GDP in 2020 from 4.6% in 2019. Fitch expects the deficit to narrow to 4.2% of GDP in 2021, driven in part by a recovery in economic activity.

In turn, Moody's noted that "this year's economic recession in the context of the coronavirus outbreak weighs on Romania's fiscal outlook," forecasting a 5% GDP contraction. In addition, Moody's expects the general-government fiscal deficit to reach 7.7% of GDP this year and 6.2% of GDP in 2021.

While the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic may still be difficult to predict, Business Arena is going to continue to keep an eye on all the issues affecting the business community, reflecting its views, hopes and challenges.

FROM ALL OF US HERE AT BUSINESS ARENA, ENJOY THE QUALITY, ADMIRE THE VALUE!

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OPINION

IT’S THE BEST TIME TO BUILD THOSE MOTORWAYS (AND MODERNIZE THE RAILWAYS FOR THAT MATTER)

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BY OVIDIU CONSTANTINESCU, FACE PR AND NEWS

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Cycling enthusiasts know what I mean: you are happily riding at full speed when, all of a sudden and out of nowhere, a stick finds its way between the spokes and the front fork. The bicycle stops as if it hit an invisible wall, while the rider is propelled forward, tumbling in the air and hitting the ground, crushed by its weight: another one bites the dust. This is precisely the kind of thing that happened to the world economy: out of nowhere, a microscopic THING sends the mighty world tumbling down. Never before has the global economy crashed so suddenly and so deeply. Never before has the crash affected all major economic sectors and never before did they stop working almost simultaneously. Never before did tens of millions of people find themselves unemployed literally overnight. The 2008 – 2010 financial crisis looks like child’s play in comparison with what we are facing now.

As for Romania, the economic pandemic could not have come at a worse time: a budget deficit over the EU limit despite economic growth for the past four years, higher and higher public expenditure due to unrealistic growth of salaries in the public sector, a (legal) promise for yet another 20% rise in pensions, a crucial election year, with both local and general

elections. What else can go wrong?

Well, something even worse may loom in the future, if the people in power put the short-term electoral gain before the long-term economic rational reasoning. And the signs are not encouraging at all. So far, the government promised milk and honey for everyone: utility bill payments suspended; loans reimbursements postponed; taxes postponed too; financial aid and financial stimulus for various kinds of companies. Is it the right way to buy one’s way out of the current catastrophic situation? Honestly, I doubt it. Mind you, even the electricity companies need money to pay salaries and buy stuff to keep the critical infrastructure up and running. Where do they get cash from? The same goes for gas, for internet, for telephony. And even the dreaded banks, where to they get the money to bankroll the government’s social expenditure or to finance recovery projects?

History has shown us that the Romanian government – regardless its political color – is a pretty bad poker player and only sheer and undeserved luck has helped the country to pull through. Right now we are just beginning the game and we really do not know how long it is going to last. Despite not having a clear good hand, we are betting on it, while we don't even have enough cash on the table. Nor do we have someone willing to lend us cheap money until we might get a straight flush or at least a full house.

The Romanian government was betting on winning

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two rounds of elections – in June and November no matter what. But so far the game is not going the Government’s way. It bet on early elections, while the Faith had “postponed elections” in its hand. It bet on a manageable deficit, and the Faith cleared out the table with “ANAF failed to collect money”. The Government bet on “give aid”, while the Faith cynically tabled a “no more money in the coffers” four of a kind. See what I mean?

So what has to be done in order to restart the economy? Needless to say, first of all we should leave the poker table. Second, we should look and learn from history. Thirdly, we should denounce the “do now-think later” logic that has so tragically marked the Romanian way of solving problems.

As the first one is obvious, let’s turn to history, which has taught us that the state should not plunge into the abyss alongside its subjects – citizens and companies alike - but stay out and throw us the rope so we can climb up and rise from the pit in which we have fallen. In this respect, I believe that the idea of the state buying stakes in private companies to capitalize them is silly. Living aside that the Romanian state’s managerial track record is nothing to be proud of, such a measure would open wide the gates for corruption, the final result being that the money would be spent on some carefully chosen companies that even in the best economic climate have delivered nothing else but losses.

Instead, the State should invest in major proj-

ects that will benefit the entire society and will act as a catalyst for the whole economic chain.

The state should not become a hysterical money spender just to give the impression of doing something, but a wise and choosy customer that buys only things that have potential to produce real and material wealth, goods and services that will help it grow and develop, and thus improve the citizens’ lives.

And, boy, we have so many badly needed things to do: to build the motorways: from Pite[ti to Sibiu, from Ploie[ti to Suceava, from Târgu Mure[ to Târgu Neam], from Pite[ti to Craiova and Oravi]a and from Oravita to Lugoj, from Drajna to Braila, Gala]i and Tulcea and from Bra[ov to Oradea. Let’s modernize the entire railway network and build high speed trains capable to link Bucharest to Budapest and Vienna and further beyond. Let’s modernize the crippling electricity network, let’s clean up the ecological mess and create vast natural parks, let’s invest in cuttingedge research and development facilities and in schools that belong in the 21st century, let’s invest in new and efficient projects, let’s build hospitals and fill them with state-of-the-art medical equipment, let’s build underground metro systems in major cities like Cluj, Iasi, Timisoara or Constanta, let’s cut the red tape and demolish the paper-based bureaucracy and embrace the digital administration of the state.

Let’s get back to work!

OPINION

THE SLEEP OF REASON PRODUCES MONSTERS The unprecedented fiscal stimulus measures taken by developed countries in the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic have induced among emerging countries an illusion that economic laws can be suspended, and, after all, there is a "free lunch" that no one has to pay for, now or in the future.

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BY VALENTIN LAZEA

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Encouraged by that illusion, members of the Romanian Business Leaders foundation and ten other business organizations recently asked the Government to access a 30 billion euro (almost 15% of GDP) financial assistance package to help recapitalize domestic companies and restart the economy. This suggestion represented a mimetic move ("if others can do it, why can't we?"), but it did not take into account the following aspects: - what is allowed to developed countries is not allowed to emerging ones, such as Romania. If our business people read carefully all the proposed fiscal and monetary easing methods (such as Quantitative Easing, Helicopter Money, etc.), they would find out that their authors emphasize that those methods make sense in developed economies (USA, Germany, France), and are in no way recommended in emerging economies. This difference in approach is due to the fact that markets are willing to tolerate much higher levels of indebtedness for developed countries (over 100% of GDP for governments and over 300% of GDP for all sectors), while for emerging economies the level of tolerance is about half of that. This dual approach has the following explanations: 1. What counts for creditors is not so much a country's debt level, but the balance between debt and receivables. For example, the United Kingdom has a total debt of over 300% of GDP, but it has receivables from the rest of the world even higher than that figure, so, overall, the country is a net creditor. In turn, Romania has very few receivables from the rest of the world, and even if it has a total debt of only about 120% of GDP it is a net debtor;

Creditors look at a country's accumulated net worth that can be liquidated to pay off a new loan. Thus, countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain have a net worth equivalent to five times their respective GDP, based on their history, as many - but not all - were great colonial powers. In Romania, the net worth amounts to about 1.4 times its GDP, so its ability to repay a possible mammoth-loan is much more limited.

2. Developed nations are going to pay an exorbitant price for the current tax extravagances. Their economists are already looking for unorthodox ways to reduce the huge debts that will result: financial repression (i.e. states paying belowmarket interest rates for a long time and keeping bank interest rates below inflation), significant increases in inflation to erode the contracted debt in nominal terms, massive debt relief measures (generating moral hazard, as they penalize good debtors), etc.. Economic laws cannot be suspended, not even in developed countries: someone will have to pay for today's consumption. This

VALENTIN LAZEA

conclusion is also valid for emerging countries, such as Romania. Moreover, bringing purchasing power from the future to the present - in the name of overcoming the crisis - will also raise the issue of intergenerational equity. Already the young generation is called upon to make sacrifices and protect the elderly in the context of the

pandemic; add to this the huge cost of the environmental programs that will be implemented in the coming decades and, above all, add the cost of interest to the trillions of euros or dollars that are circulating today and that the younger generation will have to repay: don't you think this is too much?

3. Because this is the

essence of the problem: most aid funds will come in the form of loans and not grants. It is true that the European Commission will give up co-financing requests this year, thus reducing the budgetary effort of recipient states. And it is equally true that European funds will be created, having the characteristics of grants. But the really

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OPINION

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important amounts will come in the form of loans, bearing interest and with conditionalities attached. It is enough for us to notice the difficulties in accessing new loans encountered by Italy, which is an important eurozone member, hit hard by the pandemic, with a budget deficit of less than three percent last year, and a large public debt, but owned mostly by citizens and domestic companies (that can be rolled over forever). What preferential treatment could Romania hope for, while it is not an important country at EU level, it is not a member of the eurozone, it was moderately hit by the pandemic, it had a budget deficit of over four percent in 2019, and its public debt - even if it is small - is owned in significant proportions by nonresidents (who can always request the repayment of loans)?

4. If we look at the economic aid packages implemented by countries comparable to Romania, we find the following: in Poland, most of the package of about 10 percent of GDP consists of state guarantees, which may never be activated. In Hungary, a large part of the package is represented by measures that were already implemented years ago: it is as if the Romanian government promised to reduce the VAT rate to nine percent on foodstuffs or reduce the income tax from 16 to 10 percent.

Otherwise, the actual measures taken to support the economy in Romania are not significantly different.

5. Through the pro-cyclical fiscal easing started in the summer of 2015 and continued until the end of last year, Romania has exhausted all ammunition it could have used in times of crisis. Because it is one thing to go from a budget surplus of one percent of GDP to a deficit of three - four percent (like Germany and Bulgaria) and quite another to go from a deficit of 4.3 percent of GDP to a deficit of seven percent (without taking into account the enforcement of the pension law).

What kind of leniency can Romania expect from the European Commission under the circumstances? A recent development that went mostly unnoticed was that the EU member states voted unanimously to launch the excessive deficit procedure against Romania, which shows two things: that the Stability and Growth Pact has not been forgotten and even the states willing to be lenient with Romania could not turn a blind eye to the enormity of the deficit figure (obtained

in times of economic growth).

6. Romania could also consider an IMF loan, similar to the 13 billion euro borrowed in 2010. However, it is important to note that the Fund does not support the recapitalization of companies through its programs, but it lends to states for the purpose of preferential financing of external deficits. Even assuming that a derogation could be obtained in this regard, does anyone really believe that the IMF will provide money without strict conditions on reforming finances and the real economy? And a first conditionality that the Fund could rightly demand would be to see that the private sector in Romania capitalizes the companies it owns so they can meet the minimum level required by Law 31/1990. According to some calculations, the necessary additional capitalization would amount to about 30 billion euro, which is exactly the amount currently requested by the private sector in the form of a financial assistance package.

7. Even in the unlikely scenario that the Commission and the Fund could be convinced to treat Romania with lenience, it would still not be enough without a similar treatment from the rating agencies and the markets. And here, Romania's credibility hangs by a thread, hovering at the lowest investment-grade level, and any downgrading action could send it to the junk category. In order for this downgrade not to happen, the rating agencies are going to want to see the country's determination to reduce the budget deficit, rather than measures that might widen it in the future.

In conclusion, any widening of the current deficit or debt in the name of overcoming the crisis will extend the time needed for a return to normal in the post-crisis period, increasing the costs attached and amplifying the reforms that will have to be made. In this context, the Government would do well to resist calls for uncritical imitation of practices in developed countries, even if this is difficult in an election year. The opposition should curb its urge to overbid any economic measures, as the popular vote may bring it to power in a toxic economic context of its own doing. The foreign employers' organizations in Romania (Foreign Investors Council, Amcham, etc.) should temper the enthusiasm of their colleagues in the Romanian employers' associations, and Romanian employers should be careful what they wish for: it may come true. www.opiniibnr.ro

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USINESS ARENA

m a g a z i n e

MOST ADMIRED BUSINESS

AW ARDS Gala2020

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WOMEN

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The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law index reveals wide variations in women’s rights at work. Overall, it says women have only threequarters of the employment rights that men enjoy.

The nations with a perfect score in the Index are Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Sweden and, joining the list this year, Canada, which recently improved parental leave rights. In these countries, the index shows, women who work are on an equal legal standing with men, measured on indicators including access to jobs and protections on gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Although there have been improvements in many areas, with 40 nations enacting reforms to improve gender equality in the past three years, in the Middle East and North Africa, women workers still have just half the legal rights of their male colleagues.

An increasing number of women manage industrial facilities, major companies and build their own successful businesses in Romania nowadays.

They have achieved a high level of recognition.

Therefore Business Arena Magazine proudly announces the upcoming special awards gala dedicated to the ladies that make a difference in business.

Experts agree that Romania has seen some improvement in gender equality in recent years, but efforts must still be made to ensure equal opportunities for men and women in the workplace.

In this context, Business Arena continues its tradition, celebrating women’s achievements and their vital contribution to the success of business and banking activities throughout Romania. On this note, our publication proudly announces the upcoming special awards gala dedicated to the ladies that make a difference in business.

The Most Admired Business Women Awards Gala 2020 will bring together entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, diplomats, and professionals from a wide range of sectors to celebrate the successes of women in business.

For more information please contact Cosmin Stangaciu at cosmin.stangaciu@business-arena.ro or phone 0755.274.125

OPINION

BANKS SHOULD BE SEEN AS PARTNERS IN THIS CRISIS The banking system is the solution to Romanian economy's recovery from the upcoming recession. Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Romania's economic recovery could have a "V" shape, with declining production and investment, temporary stagnation of business, the phase of temporary decline in economic activity, followed by a rapid recovery, or there could be a U-shaped recovery, with the extension of the stagnation period.

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BY GABRIELA FOLCU} EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ROMANIAN ASSOCIATION OF BANKS

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The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional challenges with unprecedented economic and social consequences globally. The effects of the pandemic could push the world economy into the biggest recession since the Great Depression. Before this health crisis, the world economy was expected to grow, but now it is estimated to decline by 4-5%. Globally, the closure of non-essential activities produces a monthly loss estimated by experts at 3-4% of GDP. The magnitude of the impact on the economy depends on the duration of the health crisis. In addition to the effects of the pandemic, we are going through a period of transformations and challenges at international level, generated by Brexit, the rise of populism and extremism, Basel IV, and the erosion of investor confidence. Romania must be careful not to internalize these problems through the measures it adopts, given that Romania has the highest level of twin deficits in the European Union.

Romania cannot eliminate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the economy, but it can mitigate them and it could prevent a financial crisis by eliminating the legislative risk in the banking sector.

The effect of contagion is inevitable. The financial system is the heart of the economy. If the heart pumps properly, the flow of muchneeded funding is ensured during the nearing recession. The circulation of capital is essential.

Capital flows between economic sectors slow down in a crisis. Any deviation only delays economic recovery.

Now, the banking system is the solution to economic recovery, and dialogue is the key.

There is an urgent need for sound economic thinking and balanced initiatives and measures.

The banking system in Romania is better prepared for the coming economic crisis, compared to 2008-2009, but there are a number of exogenous and potentially endogenous risks.

Solvency and liquidity indicators are well above the minimum required levels under national and international regulations. The solvency ratio stood at 20% at the end of last year, while the immediate liquidity level was 41%. Even the non-performing exposure rate fell very close to the European average, standing at 3.98% in February 2020. The positive aspect is that some of these risks can be avoided and, thus, the banking system remains strong and capable to cover the financing needs of the economy. The challenges to financial stability lie in a mix of risks amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the one hand, there are heightened legislative risks in the context of an election year, and, on the other hand, macroeconomic tensions, aspects that are followed with interest by the rating agencies.

The exogenous risks lie in the unpredictable legislative framework that also affects lending.

Currently, there are at least eight laws/ bills that can irreparably affect the activity in the banking industry. With such legislative initiatives, Romania is taking steps back in the process of economic development.

Depriving credit institutions of a large chunk of revenues resulting from lending operations, including repossessed properties, under a law to be analyzed by the Romanian Constitutional Court, could have a negative impact on lending.

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GABRIELA FOLCU} Moreover, the need for more provisions for the incident portfolio is likely to seriously affect lending in Romania. Let's not forget that Romania has the lowest degree of financial intermediation (25%) among European Union states (83% average). Access to loans also shows disparities at national level. In Bucharest, about 65% of adults have loans, compared to the national average of 36%.

Because of these legislative initiatives, lending activities may be affected both on the supply and demand side, with the latter hopefully affected for a short while. The balance of nongovernment loans increased by 6.9% annually in March, compared to March 2019, and by 0.6%, compared to February. It is a relatively normal increase in lending, but there is a slowing down

trend. We will probably see the effects of the crisis on lending reflected in statistics starting April. Banks will focus on financing companies to ensure a speedy recovery of the economy. In this segment, a potential risk can be generated by insolvencies, as commercial loans are prevalent in Romania, with a 3:1 ratio compared to bank loans.

It is very likely that this health crisis will turn into a financial crisis. States are going to need funding to cover deficits.The economic stimulus solutions include financing. That is why it is advisable for the banking system to be a partner in this crisis. The banking system calls for a constructive partnership with the authorities to finance the restart of the economy's engines in predictable conditions.

OPINION

WHY THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MACROECONOMIC RISK IS NOT THE UPCOMING RECESSION, BUT THE COLLAPSE OF THE EURO AND THE EU Ten years after the credit crisis, the European Union demonstrates that it has learned very little on how to unite and decisively take pan-EU measures to tackle crisis and support recovery. A series of long negotiations between the major economies of the South versus the North, with the European Central Bank (ECB) awkwardly stuck in the middle, not only doesn’t address the sustainability of the European economy as a total, but it feeds, as in the last crisis, the speculative appetite of the markets towards sovereign debt of the weaker links. However, this time, EU is not called to bail out a small economy like Greece, but Italy and Spain, its 3rd and 4th largest economies, accounting for approximately 3.5 trillion euro of its Gross Domestic Product.

BY DIMITRIOS GORANITIS, RISK AND REGULATORY ADVISORY PARTNER, DELOITTE ROMANIA

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As the COVID-19 lockdown seems to be running the middle of the first wave course, experts struggle to identify the economic impact and its duration, with IMF predicting

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DIMITRIOS GORANITIS

that the toll for the economy will only be comparable to that of World War II. Despite a recent financial crisis in the EU that triggered a political and existential crisis with Grexit being the dominant scenario and Brexit the unexpected outcome, member states have resorted again to national crisis management and national recovery strategy, while EU institutions are trying hopelessly to demonstrate their existence.

Northern member states reject the idea of Eurobonds, a mutualization of debt, and have turned down ECB’s proposal for an EU bad bank able to deal collectively with a second wave of NonPerforming Loans (NPL) across Europe.

During the credit crisis in the last decade, the same message from EU sparked the markets to speculate on sovereign debt of

the weaker countries and created an extended financial crisis in the south of Europe that ended up becoming a threat to the euro itself as a global currency and to the foundation of the European Union. The result was a Greek bailout that left the Greek economy with a GDP reduced by 30%, a result comparable

sentiment in the countries worst impacted.

Italy’s anti-EU sentiment rose from 26% in November to 49% in March.

Third, this new crisis comes very close to Brexit and ongoing political instability due to rising populism in Italy, France and Eastern Europe, and it doesn’t seem to bring member

only to failed state economies like Libya and Syria, and a sovereign debt close to 200% of GDP admittedly not viable or manageable.

states together, but rather divide them. This time around, EU is already too fragile to withstand more nationalism.

Last, the ECB has already used most of its firing power, with interest rates being at record low and quantitative easing at record high. Its war chest is not that impressive, hence the markets seem unaffected by its intervention. Statements such as “ECB will do whatever it takes” do not yield the same result as they did ten years ago.

This time around, a controlled breakup of the EU or its reduction to a trade agreement and the abandonment of the single currency become a real scenario, and not a speculative tool for the markets. It is impossible to quantify the probability of that scenario, but after Brexit and US-China trade war, who is to say what is probable or not?

But what is different now?

First of all, Italy and Spain have seen how the Greek bailout program failed under the guidance of European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and IMF merely based on austerity policies. Italy has repeatedly stated that it will not resort to ESM bailouts in fear of conditions imposed by Troika similar to Greece. This time around, Italy and Spain are too big to fail and too big to “discipline” into a forced bail out.

Second, this is not just a financial crisis, this is the result of a health and humanitarian crisis. Lack of “togetherness” from EU member states has sparked a tremendous anti-EU

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OPINION

IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH? The tens of thousands of views that “The countdown has started!” post has received are for me the measure of impatience and hope with which the public waits for even a partial return to an economically active life, aware that the current situation can only be temporary. It can only be a short-term solution that, the longer it lasts, the higher the risk of deep and harmful effects on the economy, similar to an economic ‘death’.

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BY RADU CRACIUN

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This is why I think it is worth taking a closer look at how the return to work and social life is set to happen. The answer lies in the very reason of us having to stay home. We are basically dealing with two as yet unresolved issues: the ability to detect and isolate the sick and the under capacity of hospitals to treat all those in need of medical assistance.

Hence the three critically important conditions that the European Commission identified that would allow Member States to lift containment measures and resume economic activity: a) reduction in the spread of the virus, b) large-scale testing and higher monitoring capacity and c) setting up a significant reserve of medical capacity.

So, for the economy to stand any chance of a safe restart, we have a maximum of two months to meet the three conditions. To be honest, though, the three criteria will not guarantee a return to pre-containment normalcy.

Fears will continue to haunt both employers and employees. The spell that we are going through will have businesses realize that people are in fact the weak link in the production chain. The famous adage “people are our most valuable asset” could for some take the meaning of “people are our main vulnerability”.

At the end of the day, it is not the human viruses that attack machinery and robots (a different kind of bug is at play there...). This is why, before any fundamental changes to current economic models occur, the pandemic will act as an accelerant of some trends that pre-existed the crisis. That is clearly the case of digitization and robotization. Companies are

therefore, expected to allocate in the near term vast amounts of money to tech upgrades that would reduce their reliance on human resources, in particular on those who need to leave home to get to the production site.

That would mean that only a portion of those left unemployed will find work, with the rest at risk of social and economic marginalization. These changes would probably speed up the introduction by some countries of a universal basic income, meant to provide a standard of living on the verge of decency to those left out by the new economic makeover.

Businesses will also realize the following fact: supply chains will have to become more flexible, and bear the incurred cost. The justin-time delivery model may lose its attractiveness, as it becomes a significant weakness during times of crisis similar to the one we are experiencing. The poor management of a pandemic by a state that is the lynchpin in the production chain may bring whole industries to their knees in other countries, irrespective of their preparedness to respond.

In these circumstances, I expect to see a rethink of the cost-flexibility balance where an increase in costs to achieve more flexibility might be considered acceptable. The lowest price will no longer be the priority, but whatever is more predictable, easier to control and even geographically closer. We are already seeing plans to relocate from China to other areas and European companies may be tempted to bring their offices back to Europe.

Globalization may be replaced, at least in part, by regionalization. Such a trend may be boosted by lower reliance on human resources and therefore, lower human resource costs in

emerging economies. Eastern Europe may benefit from these relocations, but the selection criteria cannot focus on labor costs alone, already on the rise, but also on the quality of infrastructure and HR. Restarting the economy, however urgent, will involve mistakes and hesitations, more so as new waves of the epidemic will occur until herd immunity is achieved and/or a vaccine is found.

Studies thus far show that we should expect to live with SARS-COV-2 and not its disappearance in the next months. This entails more moderate measures of social distancing to allow for progressive and manageable immunization of populations. It could also mean that countries where contagion has been limited may see a stronger second wave of infections.

Which countries will be the most prepared to resume economic activity? Those which not only have robust detection and treatment systems in place, but also the ability to inject considerable amounts of money into the relaunch. A Bloomberg title sums it all up: “Germany Will Be RADU CRACIUN a Post-Coronavirus Winner. Fiscally sound governments will be able to pump money into their companies unhindered by state aid rules.”

Romania, for example, which entered the crisis with a 4% budget deficit, the highest in the EU, due to the unfounded economic expe¬riments of the past, will be in a bad position insofar supporting its companies is concerned. The calls from the business environment for financial packages worth 15% of GDP are unrealistic, as they cannot be financed at a reasonable cost. Romania’s low external debt ratio is irrelevant when that debt will have to be paid back from the lowest budget relative to GDP in the EU. Actually, all countries that the crisis found in a frail fiscal position or highly indebted are now turning to the international financial institutions. IMF’s chief economist recently announced that 100 of the IMF’s 189 mem-

bers asked for stimulus packages to help them overcome the economic shock. It follows that the $1 trillion worth of funds will have to be supplemented to cope with the requests.

The European Union will also throw in huge amounts of money to beef up the economies of Member States, EUR15.6 billion to be more exact.

Not all industries of the national economies, however, will start at the same time. The first to resume operations are those that cover people’s basic needs: food, clothes, services that help social distancing, etc. The ones to be among the last to restart will most likely be the non-essential services replace-

able by activities providing similar benefits which, however, do not enable to socially distance. This category includes long distance travel, tourism, leisure activities that involve crowds, etc.

Restarting the economy, though, will not only rely on governments or external aid stimulus packages. Central banks will have a major role to play. The “money printing” policies are important, but they cannot go on indefinitely. Interest rates are already low, so further drops will not bring new rewards. We may witness a rush for currencies competitive devaluation that would render exports more competitive and help them bounce back.

In this context, countries such as Romania should want a weaker currency and drop the popular and especially institutional concern about the currency devaluation... (raducraciun.ro)

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OPINION

WELCOME TO 2050!

Most often than not, global crises force humanity into change, greatly stepping up processes that were rather slow to develop. At this point in time, also, developments that initially would have taken decades to complete will be moving into top gear with major effects in just a matter of years.

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BY RADU CRACIUN

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From this perspective, it is not the oil price collapse that should come as a surprise, but the speed at which it is unfolding. I am saying that because this was the inevitable end for a humanity that has acknowledged that it remained the captive hostage of fossil fuel consumption for too long, with devastating consequences for the entire planet.

The oil industry was already losing steam and the interest of investors. The percentage held by the energy sector is down to just 4% of the S&P 500, the lowest on record. Carbon emission targets agreed internationally could only lead towards one direction: abandoning oil as a source of energy.

And rightfully so.

Five years ago, the Nature magazine published an analysis by the University College London (UCL) that assessed the amount of oil that would remain unused till 2050 should countries around the world take all the necessary steps to prevent an average temperature rise by more than two degrees Celsius.

According to the study, 82% of global coal reserves, 49% of gas and 33% of oil reserves would remain unused.

The adjoining picture of the Guardian newspaper shows the breakdown of unused reserves by geographical areas. Opinions have not shifted in the intervening years and the big oil producers admit this as a fact. Indeed, in July 2019, the head of strategy of British Petroleum, a behemoth company, acknowledged that some oil resources will stay in the ground, especially reserves that are too expensive to get out. Even Saudi Arabia issued a very strong signal in this respect, when a few years back it launched The Vision 2030 program, a strategy meant to basically significantly reduce the kingdom’s reliance on oil revenues by fostering investments inside

and outside the country in fields of the future.

And here we are at a time when the collapse of transport services has beamed us decades into the future in just a few weeks.

Oil is no longer a coveted asset and oil companies will have no choice but to shut down wells and leave the fuel in the ground. In the hope of better times?

Those better times for oil producers wouldn’t make sense to ever come back, even though we should expect the transport industry to gradually pick up pace. Till then though, oil producers will most likely go through a very strict process of triage. In the States, for example, there are about 5,000 oil producers, 10% of oil being extracted by the so called “mom-and-pop” companies, meaning small family-owned businesses. They will be among the most likely first victims, with mid-size companies that have been using debt to fund their activity likely to follow suit.

Consolidation across the industry is unavoidable. The oil majors alone will probably survive. As far as countries are concerned, those with the lowest operating costs will be the best positioned in a world of low prices.

As I explained on another occasion, as some of the reserves will most likely never see the light of day, maximizing revenue will no longer be possible through high prices, but by tapping out available reserves. More simply put, between selling just 50% of reserves at $45 the barrel and selling 100% of reserves at $25 a barrel, it makes more economic sense to choose the latter, although the price is lower.

Given all this, a state such as Saudi Arabia will be well positioned to set the tone as it has one of the lowest oil operating costs. It is not by chance that the price war which broke out at the beginning of the year was started by no other than Saudi Arabia. It remains to be seen if the US, with significantly higher costs, will let it maintain these extremely low

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price levels which would push American producers off the market. Recent developments would suggest that it is not willing to stand by and watch. But it would eventually only lead to a reallocation of the reserves to have to stay in the ground at Saudi Arabia’s expense.

A thought may be haunting us: will we be returning in three, four, five years to pre-crisis oil consumption and pollution? I tend to think that we won’t. Restarting the economy will be done by pumping huge amounts of money into the hard-hit economies. No country, however rich, will be able to ignore the logic of investing in the fields of the future that have the potential to drive the techno-

logical transformation. No one will afford the luxury to bet huge amounts of money on a “dead horse”. And the oil industry is a dying horse, a death that could be helped along by advancing preferential loans to green sectors: generating green energy that does not rely on fossil fuels.

Can this be taken for granted? Certainly not. The past decade has shown that lobbying from oil majors should not be underestimated.

Their diversification, however, towards industries that are independent from fossil fuel use has started , is set to continue, and may even be stepped up. It follows that bitter opposition will be losing steam.

WORLD ECONOMY

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A recent recovery in financial markets after weeks of intense turmoil is likely to be short-lived, according to legendary emerging markets investor Mark Mobius, who warned Tuesday of the "incredible" implications of the global coronavirus shutdown.

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Mobius, the founder of the eponymous Mobius Capital, said markets have the potential to sink even further as banks begin posting their earnings during ongoing volatility caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"I don't think we're at the absolute bottom yet because the implications of this shutdown are incredible," Mobius said in an interview with CNBC aired Tuesday. Markets have been volatile over the past month due to rising tensions over coronavirus, suffering wild swings and record-breaking falls as investors scrambled to make sense of the virus' likely economic impact. At the time of writing, there have been more than 126,000 deaths from the virus, which has infected almost 2 million people worldwide, according to data by John Hopkins University. "Although there are some opportunities to buy, I would say it's probably a good idea to keep some powder dry for another downturn.

We might see a double bottom," Mobius told CNBC. Although he did not elaborate, Mobius' comment about keeping some powder dry likely meant retaining liquidity such as holding cash, or holding other liquid positions.

Mobius' comments came as stocks recover from recent lows. The S&P 500 last week posted a 12% weekly gain, its best weekly return since 1974, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 13% in the week.

Markets were spurred on by the Federal

LEGENDARY EMERGING MARKETS INVESTOR MARK MOBIUS WARNED THAT STOCKS COULD SEE A 'DOUBLE BOTTOM' AS THE CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN TANKS THE US ECONOMY Reserve's announcement of an additional $2.3 trillion programme of aid to help weather the economic storm caused by the virus and subsequent lock down.

TRUMP WANTS TO REOPEN THE US TO PROTECT THE ECONOMY "We think that some of the governors will be in really good shape to open up even sooner" than the end of the month, Trump told reporters Tuesday, according to a report from Reuters.

The president has persistently suggested that he wants to open the US back up as soon as possible, likely fearing reprisals from voters in November's election if the economy crashes significantly this year thanks to an extended lockdown. Trump's plans, however, remain uncertain, with many in the financial sector expressing skepticism about reopening the economy in short order.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday said he doesn't think the US economy will open in May, after the bank posted lower than expected first quarter earnings results.

Although he didn't put a date on it, Mobius seemed to tacitly endorse Trump's plans, telling CNBC: "I think we have to open up again in some way, because otherwise the collateral damage is going to be incredible."

"You think about the people who live day to day ... you got to get the economy going again."

BY SALONI SARDANA

BANKS MUST BE KEY PLAYERS IN THE CORONAVIRUS FIGHT In the financial crisis of 2008, banks failed to show a supportive, caring side to the wider society.

They can and must make amends as the world fights against the coronavirus pandemic.

The world has seldom faced such a sombre and serious outlook in peacetime. Like all major crises, the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic was unplanned for and has left governments struggling to catch up with policies and allocation of resources.

The first concern must be for the fatalities that are rising every day and with no clear indication as to when this might stop. There will definitely be many more thousands of deaths, most probably tens of thousands and, possibly, hundreds of thousands or even millions. The Banker sends its condolences to all those affected. Human factors such as these put the economic consequences of the pandemic into relief, at least, in the initial analysis. But on top of the human cost, the economic damage is going to be so considerable that the survivors will be paying for it for years to come. Right now, economists have no idea what this cost will be. The biggest unknown is when the crisis will end – in three months, six months or more than a year? Most big companies and banks can survive a short shock but the more it stretches out the more of them will find themselves in difficulties.

Governments are responding with loan guarantee and wage support programmes but they, too, could find funding themselves difficult in the long run. If their only option is to print money, inflation has to be a concern. What is certain is that economies will contract in double figures, budget deficits will balloon and debt-to-gross domestic product levels will rocket to the hundreds of percent. Countries in poor fiscal condition going into the crisis, and which experience the worst effects of the pandemic, will suffer the most, Italy being the prime example. Countries in better shape, such as Germany, need to put their fiscal resources to work, as quickly as possible, if the eurozone is going to survive A SUPPORTIVE ROLE For banks there is a real opportunity to support customers, employees and societies in a way that was lacking during the financial crisis.

This is their moment to recover from the reputational damage done last time when they were

seen to be the cause of the problem but with the bill being picked up by everyone else.

Banks will feel the pain of the pandemic in terms of rising non-performing loans and lost revenues, but they are also getting government and central bank support from the loan guarantees, the liquidity measures and forbearance on capital requirements and stress tests. They must respond positively. They must start by ending all bonuses and cancelling dividends so that the resources of the bank can be focused on helping both retail and business customers with mortgage and loan holidays. Banking associations should also step up to the plate by co-ordinating measures where they don’t fall foul of competition rules and by putting out an industry message about what is being done.

A DIFFERENT FUTURE As with all crises, the coronavirus outbreak begs the question as to what reforms and changes should be put in place once this is over.

After the financial crisis, a lot of reform was done to banking regulation, but in the wider economic and social sphere almost nothing was done. This time needs to be different or the rise in populism in Western countries will mutate into something much uglier. Raising taxes and reducing avoidance by international companies, especially tech companies, would be a good place to start so that they pay their fair share of the costs. But there are bigger issues to be addressed such as climate change and the related issue of how production and supply chains are organised.

A locked-down economy is a climate-friendly one but it is not very enjoyable or wealth creating. The issue to address is how economies can be reorganised with a more circular production system that takes account of use of resources and recycling from the outset. The old system whereby production was centred on the lowest wage economy (China, Bangladesh, Vietnam) and everything shipped out of there has shown its weaknesses in the current pandemic.

These are radical ideas and should not be seen as an affront to globalisation, which in spite of its critics has lifted millions out of poverty.

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REAL ESTATE

E-COMMERCE COMES TO THE RESCUE AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC Although less impacted by the effects of the Covid-19 epidemics than other real estate sectors, the industrial and logistics market is also adjusting to the new business context. Therefore, more and more companies are seeking solutions in online, considering that online sales increased for 75% of companies in this period. At the same time, market players are adopting local or proximity solutions for materials (19%), in order not to depend on imports from distant countries, are restructuring projects and processes (46%) or are even putting some projects on hold (33%), according to a study conducted by Colliers International among 76 industrial & logistics companies in the Romanian market. About 59% expect rents to decrease in the next 12 months, amid slowing logistic operations.

Eighty-five percent of industrial & logistics companies see their business impacted in the actual context, but 54% consider the effects are minor compared to other markets. Twentynine percent say the business is affected by the employees’ absence, 28% by restrictions in delivery, 16% by supply bottlenecks and 13% by a halted production, according to Colliers International’s study conducted among companies operating in logistics/transport, developers, companies in retail and eCommerce, production and manufacturing and investors in the industrial and logistics market. The study is part of a broader analysis of the overall real estate market outlook, based on relevant insights from all market segments, aimed to bring some clarity about the industry.

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ONLINE PLATFORMS AND A MULTICHANNEL APPROACH, POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO MINIMIZE IMPACT

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With online sales increasing over the past month, according to 75% of participants to Colliers International’s study that are active in the retail segment, industrial and logistics companies are now seeking to invest in online platforms and in diversifying sales channels to better manage risks associated with the current context. Eighty percent of retailers who responded to the survey say they have online stores or want to invest in such a platform in the near future, counting that it will act as a

buffer to the sales decline in physical stores.

“A multi-channel approach for logistics and industrial companies active in retail is expected to gain traction in the future. This would be largely neutral for a warehouse space leased by a specific tenant, it could even lead to an increase in the long-term leased area, but it would help both tenants and landlords over the long term given that the former would likely have a better cash flow, including in delicate situations like this one,” said Lauren]iu Duic\, Partner & Head of Industrial Agency at Colliers International.

The expansion of online sales will take place in a context where all of the companies took precautionary measures such as travel restrictions, increased safety and hygiene measures, work from home, etc. The highest number of measures were taken by retail players, mainly in terms of restructuring projects or processes.

These kinds of measures were also taken by ecommerce players even though for some, depending on the line of business.

LOCAL SUPPLIERS TO AVOID RAW MATERIALS SUPPLY BOTTLENECKS According to a Colliers International release, in the current context, producers will increasingly focus on local solutions for the raw material, in order to no longer depend on imports from more distant countries, such as China, for example, and to avoid supply chain bottle-

RETAIL & LOGISTICS DEMAND IS EXPECTED TO DECREASE, REFLECTING ON RENTS

LAUREN}IU DUIC| necks. Thus, in the next period, the specialists estimate that the local production spaces will experience a significant increase, and even Chinese companies will be interested in developing production centers in Europe, including Romania.

“In the medium and long term, distribution chains will be restructured, meaning that manufacturers and logistics companies will focus most probably on local and regional suppliers to avoid stopping or reducing the supply of raw materials in the future. The business perspective of large companies will remain global, but will be supported mainly by local and regional resources, especially if such business decisions will also be supported by legislative changes. Warehouses will be decentralized, and market players will choose to have smaller warehouses in different countries, instead of a large central warehouse from which to send goods to various markets,” said Lauren]iu Duic\.

Sixty-three percent of respondents see a demand decrease in the next 12 months and 59% believe rents will follow the same trend as a result. “The aligned market expectation in terms of demand and rents offers a somewhat positive outlook, indicating that landlords and tenants have a good starting point for potentially difficult negotiations that lie ahead”, says Lauren]iu Duic\. The long-term consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic will most likely be the restructuring of the supply chain, according to 69% of participants to Colliers International’s survey, followed by delays in the flow of goods (59%) and an increase in storage capacity (31%). Only 10% of industrial and logistics companies believe there will be no major consequences.

THE RELATIONSHIP WITH CHINA, AFFECTED Forty-three percent of respondents see a change in thinking in the industrial sector about relations with China regarding imports and warehousing in the EU. 45% think there will be only a short term change and 13% see no change. It is still too early to judge the impact of the post-pandemic impact on trade relations, but the specialists underscore that a large part of market participants would expect a re-balancing of sorts with regards to China.

For Romania, this could mean the re-shoring of new production facilities for European markets. Similar surveys undertaken by Colliers in neighboring countries yielded similar results, with the majority of Polish I&L players expecting either short-term or long-term opportunities at the expense of China.

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B ACNR KY IPNTGO W A L L E T

SANTANDER STRENGTHENS SME TRADE OPERATIONS WITH EBURY DEAL COMPLETION Banco Santander announced the completion of its purchase of a c.50.1% stake in Ebury, one of the best international payment, FX and international cash management platforms for SMEs, after obtaining all regulatory approvals from the required authorities.

This transaction was announced in November 2019 and is part of the bank's digital strategy, providing SMEs with the necessary tools for their international expansion through global trade finance services.

Ebury already has operations in 17 countries and 140 currencies, and has increased its revenues by

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JUAN LOBATO AND SALVADOR GARCIA, CO-FOUNDERS OF EBURY

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an average of 50% per year over the past three years. With the support of an international group such as Santander, the company will be able to expand its business to other markets in Latin America and Asia.

Ebury maintains its headquarters in the United Kingdom, from where it operates a unique global distribution platform supported by a data-based business model that offers high-quality products and customer experience.

Santander invested c.£350 million (around EUR 400 million) in the deal. Of this amount, £70 million was used to bolster the company's resources to underpin its international expansion. The agreement provides Ebury with access to Santander's international network. The bank already supports

more than four million SMEs worldwide, of which over 200,000 operate internationally. The bank can also offer support to Ebury's existing customer base, which includes SMEs and companies, and agreements with financial and other industry partners.

Sergio Rial, Chairman of Santander Brazil and Chairman of Ebury, said: "The investment in Ebury is a significant strategic milestone for bank, allowing us to boost our capabilities in an exciting market with high growth potential. This new acquisition will provide us with the capabilities to further increase the Global Trade Services business with a new world-class platform with which we expect a significant return on investment in the coming years.”

Juan Lobato and Salvador Garcia, cofounders of Ebury, explained: "In just over ten years, Ebury has grown from a small fintech company to a business with over 1,000 employees. Now, thanks to the support of Santander, we will be able to expand the business even more internationally and enter new markets".

Ebury has been present in Romania for two years, its local office posting some of the best results in the network, with 800 clients (corporations and SMEs) and a team of 25 consultants.

Through its Global Trade Services business, Santander supports access to international markets for small and medium-sized companies through trade finance, supply chain, payments and foreign exchange, with fast and efficient services. With a revenue pool around $200 billion, the goal of the bank's global platform is to lead international trade for SMEs in Europe and Latin America, and it intends to expand to 20 markets in the medium term.

IFC INVESTS 205 MILLION EURO IN WAREHOUSES DE PAUW TO SUPPORT ROMANIA’S GREEN PROPERTY SECTOR International Finance Corporation (IFC) is providing a green financing package of around 205 million euro to Warehouses De Pauw NV (WDP), a Belgian real-estate investment trust, to support construction of around one million square meters of resource-efficient semi-industrial and logistics properties across Romania.

The green financing fits within a larger 750million-euro financing program and includes green financing from third-party investors mobilized by IFC under its Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program and from international commercial banks.

This is IFC’s first green loan for the propertysector in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region.

WDP will implement IFC’s EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) green-buildings certification across its portfolio in Romania. EDGE certification mandates an at least 20 percent savings in energy and water in the buildings and in the energy used to produce the building materials.

By getting its properties independently certified, WDP will reduce the utility costs for its tenants and enhance its position with them.

WDP Romania general manager Jeroen Biermans said, “Romania is central to WDP’s strategy. We plan to own and operate a 1 billion euro portfolio in the country by 2023, equivalent to about 20 percent of WDP’s overall portfolio. IFC’s green loan, combined with its certifying our entire portfolio with EDGE, will allow us to become the largest owner of certified green warehouses in Romania.”

IFC sees the commercial property sector as key in building business infrastructure. This investment will facilitate growth of the e-commerce, warehousing, and distribution sectors, the business process outsourcing market, and the automotive and retail industries, all of which are important growth drivers for logistics and light industrial spaces in Bucharest and second-tier cities. The investment will also support the construction industry in the country.

“With this large-scale green investment, we are supporting efforts to increase competitiveness and productivity in Romania, contributing to long-term sustainable growth,“ said Wiebke Schloemer, IFC Director for Europe and Central Asia. To date, IFC

has invested over 4.9 billion euro globally in green buildings. EDGE-certified commercial and residential projects have saved over 225,000 tons of carbon dioxide across the world. Developed by IFC, EDGE helps property developers to build and brand green in a fast, easy, and affordable way.

WIEBKE SCHLOEMER, IFC DIRECTOR FOR EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA EDGE is supported by free software that encourages solutions to reduce energy, water, and the energy used to make building materials by at least 20 percent, which is the standard for EDGE certification.

The program has been generously supported by Austria, Canada, Denmark, ESMAP, EU, Finland, GEF, Hungary, Japan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

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BANKING

EBRD BRIDGES FINANCING GAP FOR CITY OF BUCHAREST

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Bucharest is successfully addressing its financing needs with the help of a 555 million lei (115 million euro equivalent) loan from the EBRD. The three-year emergency facility refinanced the five-year tranche of the municipality’s 2015 bond programme, which matured on May 4, 2020.

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According to EBRD, the loan replaces earlier plans by the city for a new bond issuance and offers flexibility to return to capital markets under improved market conditions.

Mark Davis, EBRD Regional Director for Romania and Bulgaria, said: “The EBRD’s flexible and swift response enables Bucharest, our longstanding partner, to successfully refinance its maturing bond programme. We are pleased to be able to continue our support for the city and its people and, despite adverse market conditions, to uphold investors’ confidence in Romania’s bond market and the Bucharest Stock Exchange.”

He added: “The EBRD remains committed to helping the city prepare for future bond placements, including green bonds.”

Gabriela Firea, Mayor of Bucharest, commented: “I am pleased that we have successfully completed this extremely difficult procedure at a delicate time for the financial market. I am aware that Bucharest is perceived as an important issuer on the Romanian municipal bond market and I would like to point out that we intend to return to the capital market, as soon as the market stabilises. Our thanks to the EBRD, our longstanding partner, for its involvement, efforts and support for Bucharest.”

In this context, the bank has announced its plans to focus on helping the 38 countries where it invests to combat the economic impact of the

coronavirus crisis, standing ready to provide support worth 21 billion euro over the 2020-21 period.

The Bank is adapting and scaling up existing instruments and developing new initiatives to provide finance and policy support to help stave off the immediate economic threat of the virus. It is

MARK DAVIS

also working to prepare countries for the post-virus era and to safeguard their progress towards sustainable, fair and open market economies.

EBRD support includes short-term liquidity and working capital for existing clients, as well as trade finance and an emergency support programme for infrastructure providers. As the situation evolves, the Bank will also ramp up its local currency, capital markets and equity offers.

In Romania, where the EBRD is a major investor, the bank focuses on financing infrastructure, boosting productivity and strengthening the financial sector. To date, the EBRD has invested almost 8.7 billion euro in the Romanian economy.

In 2015, it was among the investors in the Bucharest bond program.

BANKING

HOW TO SEE IT COMING: PREDICTING BANK DISTRESS WITH MACHINE LEARNING The great American baseball sage, Yogi Berra, is thought to have once remarked: ‘It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future’. That is certainly true, but thankfully the accelerating development and deployment of machine learning methodologies in recent years is making prediction easier and easier.

That is good news for many sectors and activities, including microprudential regulation. In this post, we show how machine learning can be applied to help regulators. In particular, we outline our recent research that develops an early warning system of bank distress, demonstrating the improved performance of machine learning techniques relative to traditional approaches.

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WHY MACHINE LEARNING?

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Roughly speaking, machine learning is a collection of techniques concerned with prediction.

Think Google’s auto-complete or Amazon’s tailored product recommendations, to use a couple obvious and everyday examples.

What makes machine learning approaches so powerful relative to traditional statistical models is that they are better able to account for complexities that might be present in the data. Classical approaches, on the other hand, rely on assumptions that, while very easy to interpret and understand, are often wrong for describing the relationships in the data at hand.

Moreover, some machine learning approaches – for example, random forest and boosted decision trees – make use of techniques for combining predictive models together. It turns out that bringing together diverse and accurate models is likely to outperform a single model, even if that single model is the best on a standalone basis!

The combination of individual models is known in the machine learning jargon as ensembling and consists of three general families: bagging, boosting and stacking. These techniques have proven to be tremendously useful in making predictions less tough.

WHAT WE DO We use confidential regulatory data covering the period 2006-2012 to predict bank distress one year out, comparing and contrasting a number of machine learning techniques (random forest, boosted decision trees, K nearest neighbours, and support vector machines) with classical sta-

tistical approaches (logistic regression and random effects logistic regression).

In essence, each of the machine learning and classical techniques, in their own particular way, learn the relationship between the input and output data provided; in our case, bank financial ratios, balance sheet growth rates, and macroeconomic data for the former, and subjective supervisory assessment of firm risk for the latter.

Our aim is to choose which of these techniques is best suited for an early warning system of bank distress. We have two broad evaluation criteria: performance and transparency.

Supervisors’ jobs are made easier not only from useful and accurate predictions, but also from an understanding of what is driving those predictions. For example, if it is known that a fall in a firm’s total capital ratio combined with relatively weak net interest margin is responsible for a spike in a firm’s predicted probability of distress, supervisors have a better sense of what mitigating action may be required.

WHAT WE FIND The random forest significantly and substantively outperforms the classical models and other machine learning techniques based on standard performance metrics: the AUC and Brier Score.

The AUC is short for ‘area under the Receive Operating Characteristic curve‘ and measures the ranking quality of each model. The higher the AUC, the higher the probability that the model correctly discriminates between randomly drawn low and high risk firms.

The Brier score measures the quality of each model’s predictions, imposing relatively larger

penalties for overconfidence when it is misplaced (ie the prediction turns out to be incorrect).

We also evaluate the performance of each model based on two different ways it could make mistakes: false negatives (missing actual cases of distress) and false positives (wrongly predicting distress) for discrete decision thresholds. From a supervisor’s perspective, false negatives are far more problematic – an early warning system that fails to set the alarm when it should, particularly for large, systemically important institutions, can have deleterious consequences. Scrutinising a flagged bank that goes on to perform better than predicted, though costly in terms of resources, poses a less serious problem. The random forest again performs best when we vary the cost of these different errors, increasing the importance we place on false negatives.

As can be seen in Figure 2, there is a substantive difference between the machine learning and classical model. A lot of this can be explained by the fact that the random forest accounts for the complexities in the data. We demonstrate this by measuring the interaction strength of each variable using what’s known as the H-statistic (defined as the share of total variance explained by a given variable’s interaction with all other variables in the model).

Following the work of our colleague at the Bank of England, Andreas Joseph, we also conduct statistical inference with the help of the computed Shapley values, performing Shapley regression. This allows us to understand which of the input variables are significant for driving predictions, providing greater interpretability and transparency for the random forest.

WHAT DRIVES DISTRESS?

Our paper makes important contributions, not least of which is practical: bank supervisors can utilise our findings to anticipate firm weaknesses and take appropriate mitigating action ahead of time.

However, the job is not done. For one, we are missing important data which is relevant for anticipating distress. For example, we haven’t included anything that speaks directly to the quality of a firm’s management and governance, nor have we included any information on organisational culture.

Moreover, our period of study only covers 2006 to 2012 – a notoriously rocky time in the banking sector. A wider swathe of data, including both good times and bad, would help us be more confident that our models will perform well in the future.

So while prediction, especially about the future, remains tough, our research demonstrates the ability and improved clarity of machine learning methodologies. Bank supervisors, armed with high-performing and transparent predictive models, are likely to be better prepared to step-in and take action to ensure the safety and soundness of the financial system.

Machine learning techniques tend to be opaque relative to classical models. We therefore apply state-of-the-art machine learning interpretability approaches to provide a sense of what is driving the random forest predictions.

By computing Shapley values, we can tell the contribution of each input to the difference between a specific prediction and the average prediction (see here for an intuitive explanation and example). Figure 2 aggregates the Shapley values, providing the mean absolute Shapley value per input variable and comparing the random forest with the logistic regression model.

WHAT NEXT?

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

8 WAYS TO TRAIN YOUR MIND TO SUCCEED DURING UNCERTAIN TIMES If your mind is reeling with tons of potential business ideas but you never find the courage to turn them into reality, or if you’re already mid-venture and find you doubt yourself more often than not, it might be time to work on your approach to how you do business during these uncertain times.

Being an entrepreneur is not just about creativity and ambition – it’s also having the right mindset to make things happen. Luckily, there are ways in which you can train your mind to be more successful in all things business.

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1. SWAP FEAR FOR CURIOSITY If there was a job description for an entrepreneur, venturing into the unknown would definitely be a part of it. For many, this is a scary prospect – you’re exploring areas of business in which you have no solid experience. If you’re lucky (and really good at what you do), you might even be the first person to consider doing things this way.

If the fear of taking too big a risk or making unpopular decisions is getting in the way, think of it as curiosity and exploration instead.

Whenever you’re feeling anxious, tell yourself you’re just curious as to what the end result will be. This will make you more open to experimentation and give you more courage to try new things.

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2. DO THINGS THAT SCARE YOU Once a day, if you can manage it. Take risks, big and small, as often as you can. This will train your mind to be more resistant to the stress that usually comes with risk, and serve as a reminder that most of the time, nothing all that terrible will happen if you fail. There’s no need to be reckless – but there’s every reason to be decisive and confident in your decisions.

3. LEARN TO TRUST YOUR GUT The ability to think fast and be decisive in the right moments can make or break your business career. The good news is, more often than not, your first instinct will be the best guide to

making a quick decision. The only challenge is learning to trust that instinct.

The best way to do that is to practice, on both big and small decisions. Whenever you’re faced with a choice, pay attention to what your instinct is telling you – and act on it. Soon enough, you’ll see that it won’t lead you astray and learn to trust it.

4. APPRECIATE YOURSELF Planning ahead and having firmly set goals is incredibly important, but so is recognizing how far you’ve already come.

Take a moment every day to assess the progress you’ve made and appreciate yourself for following through with your business goals and ideas.

Even if things didn’t go exactly to plan, every perceived failure is a learning experience – so at the end of every day, there’s always going to be something for which to feel grateful and successful.

5. RECOGNIZE YOUR SUCCESS IN THE PRESENT It’s a good idea to stay focused on your end goal. However, if you’re always thinking about your success as something far off in the distance, you’ll always feel like you’re not doing enough to reach it.

Rather than thinking of your success in the future tense, try to consider it in the present in your mind. Instead of thinking, ‘one day, I’ll make it happen’, think: ‘I’m already making it happen’.

And it’s perfectly true – every day spent working

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on your goal is a part of the success you’re aiming for.

6. LEARN TO ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT Asking for what you want or need – especially if you don’t think you’re likely to get it – can be tough at first. It’s important to overcome this particular hurdle, though, and start being direct about your expectations.

For instance, decide on your prices based on what you want to earn, rather than what you think others will be willing to pay. Of course, you still need to be realistic with your expectations, but don’t sell yourself short. Even if it takes a while, you will eventually start getting what you ask for – along with a serious confidence boost.

7. EXERCISE AND STAY HEALTHY It’s more than a self-help cliché: a healthy, well-nourished body fosters healthy thinking. Try to exercise regularly – it’ll not only help to keep your stress levels in check, but also give you

productive time away from work. mproving your physical condition will improve your confidence, and that’s also massively important for achieving a successful business mindset. A healthy diet to go alongside the exercise plan will have you feeling less tired and ready to take on the mental and physical challenges of running a successful business.

8. SEEK OUT POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT, CUT OUT THE NAY-SAYERS All human beings are impressionable to some degree. And whatever your venture or position, there will always be someone who tries to knock it. Of course, criticism can be constructive – but it can also be highly destructive and cause you to doubt yourself.

Surrounding yourself with supportive individuals – whether they’re friends, family, or professional advisors – will help you feel more confident and driven.

TECHNOLOGY

5 DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES BOOSTING SECURITY AND DEFENSE Advances in technology are reshaping global security capabilities, from enhancing the way we monitor our borders to helping mitigate the impact of natural disasters. Just a few generations ago, unmanned drones were confined to the pages of science fiction and artificial intelligence seemed years in the future. Today, sophisticated technologies are transforming every aspect of our daily lives.

Here are five ways these advances are helping mitigate security risks:

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1. PROACTIVE CYBERSECURITY SYSTEMS As we embrace the digital world, new types of crime become inevitable.

“Almost every day, we see cyberattacks becoming more tricky,” says Harumi Mizokami, Deputy Director of the Advanced System Programs Department of Integrated Defense & Space Systems at MHI. “Infrastructure providers, governments, organizations and business owners are increasingly aware that effective cybersecurity solutions are essential to sustain social and business networks, and protect transport, defense and critical infrastructure systems.”

While traditional cybersecurity defenses include monitoring, analysis, software management and network security mainly designed for IT systems, the latest developments are more proactive and designed for operational technology systems. Mizokami and her team layer on protocol inspections and rule-based behavior monitoring, making systems more alert to potential threats and better equipped to guard against them.

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2. SMART DRONE PATROLS Drones are everywhere. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, there will be 7 million in the skies over the U.S. by 2020. And while their use often sparks privacy concerns, they can be a useful force in security and defense. MHI’s CoasTitan system harnesses the power of autonomous air and sea vehicles to guard against coastline threats, including terrorism, illegal immigration, smuggling, pirates and illegal fishing.

Cutting back on human involvement in these often-dangerous situations, the drones help cut costs while bolstering safety at the same time. A control center coordinates patrols, meaning coast guards can be used and deployed in the most effective ways.

3. INTELLIGENT SATELLITE IMAGE PROCESSING Security experts have long been able to tap into satellite images to help their preventative and response efforts. Now, with the availability and quality of these images increasing, they offer an even more valuable resource for security and disaster-relief operations.

Even so, while larger volumes of data are a valuable resource, it also creates a challenge in terms of processing. In the past, analysts would scour satellite images for hours. Now artificial intelligence can search areas automatically and provide real-time reports to rescue teams.

When flooding occurs, maps of the damaged areas can be rapidly drawn together, allowing resources to be directed appropriately. Other uses include in border security or in monitoring industrial trends.

4. AI-ENABLED MONITORING In a similar way, today’s autonomous surveillance cameras eliminate the need for humans to spend hours staring at screens. Instead, connected sensors, network storage and AI-enabled systems can keep an autonomous, high-definition eye on things 24-7. Algorithms combine with high-tech digital surveillance equipment to boost monitoring capabilities, employing software with the capacity to detect movement and recognize individual faces, even in darkness.

5. AN IOT CONNECTED WORLD The connection of more and more objects that we use every day has both positive and negative implications for security. On the one hand, a plethora of information can be harvested and processed in a short space of time. On the other, increasing the flow of information between devices exposes new threats and opportunities for interception. While increasingly, hardware and software security measures are incorporated into devices at the design stage, strong encryption should also be used to help ensure a secure connection between devices and the systems they operate on.

SERVICES SEE GROWTH POTENTIAL IN BUCHAREST AND MAJOR UNIVERSITY CITIES Bucharest and major university cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Timi[oara, Ia[i, Bra[ov or Craiova, are well positioned to attract new business in the services sector, despite the Covid-19 pandemic that slowed down the transactional activity and led companies to "work" from home, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox real estate consultants.

The experts point out that the current context highlights Romanian employees’ flexibility and ease of adapting to new situations, as well as the development of IT infrastructure in major cities, elements that have facilitated the transition from the traditional office towards teleworking, thus reducing the impact on operations.

In fact, a study conducted by the Broadband Deals platform in Great Britain places Bucharest on the first position in a ranking of the best 50 cities in the world for remote working, a hierarchy that considered elements such as average internet speed, the amount of remote working jobs available, the living costs and the availability of home delivery platforms.

The next three positions are taken by Houston, Las Vegas and Atlanta in the United States, while in the European ranking Bucharest is followed by Budapest, Kiev and Warsaw.

M\d\lina Cojocaru, Partner Office Agency, Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, said: “The continuity of operations is an essential element for companies in all areas. We have noticed this over time through the way companies have secured M|D|LINA access to electricity, COJOCARU servers and internet in order to deal with any situation.

The Covid-19 pandemic put these companies to a new test, to become operational from home overnight, and the way most of them managed to make this transition is an additional argument that recommends Romania as one of the most attractive IT and related services

hubs in Europe and beyond.” In the short term, some companies are expected to show a more conservative attitude, while assessing the impact of the situation on the entire client portfolio, but in the medium and long term the local market will be rewarded for the ability and flexibility to work from home, in case it is required. On the other hand, most companies are currently considering the opportunity to offer employees more flexibility regarding their workplace even after the social distancing measures get more relaxed and as a health safety measure they are working on plans to reduce the density of office spaces.

In Q1 2020, 81,000 square meters of new office spaces were delivered in Bucharest, while Ana Tower and the third building of the Globalworth Campus project in Pipera were the most important deliveries. By the end of the year, new spaces with a total area of around 145,000 square meters are expected to be delivered. Thus, the total volume of new office spaces will reach about 226,000 square meters, approximately 21% down from 2019 deliveries.

Regarding the demand, while the volume transacted in Bucharest decreased in Q1 by 50% compared to the same period of 2019, up to 52,000 square meters, throughout Romania the level remained stable at about 21,000 square meters, the important activity being seen in Timi[oara, Cluj and Ia[i, and also in Craiova, a city that is starting to attract more and more office occupants.

The office stock in Bucharest totals nearly 3.2 million square meters, with a vacancy rate of 9.8%, slightly increasing, while the area of modern offices in major regional cities - ClujNapoca, Timi[oara, Ia[i and Bra[ov approaches the 1 million square meters threshold.

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HOSPITALITY

HOTEL MARKET SHOWS MORE GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES

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Romania’s hotel market has a high potential for further development (in large cities and high potential business areas). In the 2020 – 2021 period, 14 new hotels with over 2,000 new rooms are expected to open, according to a Crosspoint Research market report.

The report also revealed a trend focusing on refurbishing and upgrading older hotels, especially the ones with characteristic architecture and a

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rich history. In turn, the largest investments in the hospitality industry are going to be made in construction and modernization works. The hospitality industry recorded one of the highest growths among non-residential building permits in 2018, after a 26% drop in 2015-2016.

Romania is still underdeveloped in the business hotels segment in large cities, and the leisure segment has a big potential for renovation works. The number of business hotels in the cities is expected to increase as the regional industries develop.

According to HVS.com, the change in value of the Romanian hotel market has been on a positive trend since 2014 and the forecasted raise in value for 2020 is thought to be between 3% and 10%. However, in the current circumstances, it is very likely that deliveries and development plans in the hotel market are going to be delayed or postponed. As the tourism industry is the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, an important decrease in the number of tourists, especially foreign ones, is expected in 2020. Even if trav-

el restrictions are lifted, international travel is going to be limited to business trips. In an optimistic scenario, domestic tourism has a chance of recovery in the last quarter of the year and the beginning of 2021. Starting 2021, Crosspoint Research's market report notes that the market may see a return to its growth rate, most likely on the back of the business segment rather than the leisure segment.

Looking at 2019, the report identified a 3% increase in the number of tourists compared to the previous year. The demand was still mainly driven by Romanian tourists (10.5 million arrivals of Romanian tourists versus 2.67 million foreign tourists). According to the Romanian Tourism Ministry, tourists spent around 3.17 billion euro in Romania last year, with around 1.5 billion euro coming from foreign tourists. It is estimated that the hotel industry’s turnover stood at around 1.3 billion euro in 2019.

SHORT-TERM RENTAL IN BUCHAREST Due to a rise in popularity of short-term apartment rental throughout the world, the industry has also seen a surge in demand for this type of accommodation in Romania. It is estimated that short-term apartment rental in Bucharest had a 30% share in total accommodation demand in 2019. At the end of the year, there were over 4,000 listings offering short-term lodging in Bucharest on airbbnb.com and vrbo.com, the main online marketplaces for this type of product. The number of listings more than doubled in size compared to 2017. Of the 65,000 guests who chose this type of accommodation in Bucharest in 2019, 82% were foreign tourists.

Full homes make up the majority of the supply, with 84% of the listed properties, followed by private rooms (15%) and finally shared rooms with just 1%. One-bedroom apartments are most in demand, followed by two-bedroom apartments and studios.

With revenues of over 22 million euro in 2019, almost three times higher than just two years before, the short-term apartment rental business in Bucharest is a profitable alternative for landlords and investors, and it is most likely going to continue its development, according to the same Crosspoint Research market report.

LEADERS’ Gala AWARDS 2020 INANCIAL F

HALL OF FAME in partnership with

Business Arena Magazine is proud to announce the 20th edition of its annual event dedicated to the leaders in the financial market:

FINANCIAL LEADERS’ HALL OF FAME 2020

Some 180 persons from the financial and baking sectors, directors of investment funds and representatives of some of the largest companies in Romania, together with representatives of the local authorities, high government officials and diplomats will take part in this exclusive event.

According to a McKinsey report, "the profound humanitarian fallout of the COVID-19 crisis carries with it the potential equally disruptive economic fallout. The path ahead is hence a precarious one, driven by epidemiological uncertainty, the unique blend of resulting shocks to both supply and demand, and “preexisting conditions” in the global macroeconomy."

The same source noted that "addressing the situation will require further global action and public–private coordination. Banks around the globe will play a critical role in this as systemic stabilizers for their customers, their employees, and for their economies at large. Cash and deposit services, credit extension, payment facilitation, and market making are all essential services."

It also revealed that "banks have already taken

a series of actions in reaction to the spread of COVID-19. Common steps we’ve seen include establishing a central task force, curtailing travel, suspending large-scale gatherings, segregating teams, making arrangements for teleworking, and refreshing external-vendor-interaction policies."

In addition, the report pointed out that beyond these "immediate and basic actions", banks should prioritize three measures tailored to the particular combination of biological and market stresses and how they affect the global market. Thus, they should focus on normalizing workforce measures for multimonth sustainability, providing essential banking services to retail consumers, and fulfilling a social mission to support households and businesses with credit.

Business Arena Magazine is proud to recognize the achievements and successes of banks, financial institutions and business leaders that find the winning strategies in spite of the challenging economic background.

For more information please contact Cosmin Stangaciu at cosmin.stangaciu@business-arena.ro or phone 0755.274.125

INTERVIEW

POWER OF MUSIC, ELECTRICITY OF CULTURE

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Conductor and baritone Ionu] Pascu is determined to build cultural bridges between accessible and inaccessible artistic productions, between generations and to boost entertainment quality levels. In an interview with Business Arena, the Constan]a-born and bred accomplished musician also shares his views on the threats and opportunities created by the coronavirus pandemic in the world of culture and quality entertainment.

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How did your story as an artist begin?

What led you to pursue a career in music?

I believe what really matters is the set of personal affinities of each individual, who manages and guides the most important choices in life based on emotions.

In other words, we are attracted to the things that we like doing with passion. It may seem obvious, but I know quite a few people, some highly successful professionals, who are unhappy with their more rational life choices, if they are not in tune with the daring dreams of their youth. I’m not just talking about artistic dreams, because not all people have this calling - and that’s natural. I’m talking about passions, in any field.

In my case, I took the risk of making music my profession precisely because, until the age of 18, I had been able to directly compare the two worlds between which I oscillated every day: the artistic and the nonartistic one.

Initially music was only a secondary activity for me, unlike some of my friends who were enrolled “full time” in music schools or high schools. At the ‘Energetic’ High School in Constan]a, my subjects included “Installations” and “Machine Parts”, I had many “Workshop” classes and I did practical training in power transformation stations around the city, in addition to the other subjects of a regular high school. Obviously, the teachers didn’t really understand what I was doing there, as they knew about my decision to become a musician. Nor were they too happy about my periodic two-three week international tours with the “Rhapsody of the Sea” folk band, in which I was an accordionist. I was a little envied for that, back then in the early days after the Revolution, but I usually managed to make up for it by sometimes bringing my accordion to school.

Looking back, I must confess that I don’t know what kind of career I could have had with the accordion, even though I was already playing classical music and planning to study in Moscow, but I can certainly say that meeting my wife-to-be brought the needed change to my view on life. Being the end of the 11th grade, we were able to allow our imagination to en-

visage a future full of boundless possibilities, such as creating a “musical” family. It seemed a feasible business plan and here I was aspiring to the profession of opera singer. Madeleine (my wife) had already made a number of steps in that direction, as a student of the Music High School. Basically, the admission to the Conservatory became the first obstacle in our planned strategy. In a nutshell, we were both admitted by the Voice Department, then, in the third year, our daughter, Aida, was born, and she is now a second year Voice Department student. That’s the musical family we imagined 25 years ago, according to the plan.

Later, while I was a soloist of the Constan]a and Bucharest Opera Houses, I attended the Faculty of Orchestral Conducting, seen as a professional “upgrade”, based on that set of affinities I mentioned earlier. Obviously, it’s hard to stop when you’ve climbed a lot and you’re close to the top of the mountain. So the next step was a two-year master’s degree at the Milan Conservatory and a four-year doctorate in Bucharest - a total of 15 years at the Conservatory (you have to be well prepared in the business arena, right?)

Who were your mentors, the people who left their mark on your life and career?

Our daughter’s name was not inspired by Verdi’s work, as one might think. It is in fact a tribute to one of our teachers and, later, our wedding godmother, Constanta soprano Aida Abagief, a mentor to many important voices and important representatives of the old generation. It was a great honor for us to take over from a professional of her stature, benefiting from her entire experience built during a glorious period of the Romanian opera scene.

For two years, I received guidance from late tenor Dorin Teodorescu, in whose class I was a student. Four intense years with the great director Hero Lupescu, who taught the opera classes at the Conservatory, or the pedantic courses of the old master Drago[ Alexandrescu carved in me a deep respect for the stage, art in general, and for this profession in particular. Later, during my second

undergraduate studies, I learned a lot from master Cristian Brâncu[i, an experienced and meticulous conductor, and from master Nicolae Coman, a refined composer and professor of the art of harmony. Apart from the knowledge and resources accumulated from these people, I can say that I was impressed with their human qualities, becoming real models of conduct in life and in my career.

Of course, I have learned enormously from many more professional encounters with outstanding personalities, which could be named here, but the list would be too long.

What inspired the creation of Aida Events and what is its mission?

Any civilization identifies itself with the level of culture it has cultivated. Here are two of the 15 definitions of the word “culture” in the Romanian Explanatory Dictionary: 1. The totality of material and spiritual values created by mankind and the institutions necessary for the communication of those values, and 2. The (high) level of intellectual development that one reaches. Understanding that we are dealing with material and spiritual values, on the one hand, and with raising the level of intellectual development, on the other hand, the society needs the involvement of responsible people of culture. Now, the offer for the general public is somewhat passive and quite exclusive. Basically, cultural events rely on an audience that is already prepared to consume such artistic products, without having a direct involvement in the training process. Yes, you need a certain level of knowledge to be able to enjoy all the benefits of a cultural product. It is an elevated language, but with perseverance one can become familiar with that new language.

Basically, Aida Events deals with the enrichment of the current language, by progressively raising the bar of its cultural events. An adequate repertoire selection and its presentation in a complex form can be, as it has already been proven, a bridge between accessible and inaccessible products. Moreover, all age segments are targeted, in order to ensure a bridge between generations - very necessary in an education process that relies on replicating models and values. I know those are great dictionary words, but I support my words with actions.

Last year, for example, in November, we presented the “Connecting Opera” project in Bucharest and Constan]a, with 170 artists (soloists, orchestra, choir, children’s choir and actors) launching a great anthem dedicated to humanity, singing a collection of international pop-rock hits in a classical style, culminating in a total emulation with the famous “We are the world”.

Of course, the impact was felt on several levels, being basically a charity concert for the benefit of the “Hope and Homes for Children Romania” foundation. The audience? Between five and 80 years old, including children from foster care. The event benefited from TV coverage, TVR broadcasting the concert on Christmas

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IONU} PASCU Eve, so the audience was much larger overall.

Another example is the “Romanian Extraordinary Gala at Jerusalem Symphony.” On December 1, we managed (“for the first time in history,” as Insight Tarom magazine reported) to have a well-known foreign orchestra play a two-hour 100 % Romanian program, together with 10 professional soloists from Romania.

Again, with an accessible program, including orchestrations of famous songs (folk or pop music), the audience got their money’s worth. Obviously, the success also involved a great image gain for Romania.

In short, we want to activate Romania’s potential energy by raising the quality level in entertainment, which we could call “cultural entertainment”.

Of course, in addition to the big concerts, we also perform at chamber level, with fewer musicians, but with good music repertoires adapted to each customer, from pianissimo to fortissimo.

To what extent is the Romanian public open to attending cultural events?

The general public’s access to cultural events is particularly conditioned by the prejudices perpetuated in people’s families or in their circle of friends. It takes a lot of courage to break routine patterns or trends.

Openness exists in each of us, the need for inner progress being natural to humans as a species.

The problem arises when the person who starts consuming more “serious” products is ridiculed or accused of snobbery, depending on their age. Again, it is human nature (perverted, this time) not to easily accept the rise of an individual from a group stuck on a certain intellectual level. I don’t want to upset anyone, but it is obvious: the cultivation of social virtues is directly proportional to the messages received through each individual’s choice of entertainment, and social virtues mirror people’s level of civilization. I’m talking about messages... literally. For example, lyrics say everything

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about one musical genre or another. They can be a simple filter when it comes to judging what could qualify as “good” music.

My remarks may sound a little caustic for some, but I am thinking of the young generation that has the fate of the nation’s heritage in its hands. By extension, the same is valid for the entire world. We become what we choose to consume, and this generation’s emotional food depends on us, on the living example we offer every day.

As for instrumental music, since we’re on the subject, there is a broader discussion about the abstract, but direct messages that it can convey emotionally and intellectually. I won’t go into details here, but I will say this: music is a very powerful tool! Use responsibly with children (and with yourself)!

Music is a universal language, but are there any differences in stage experiences in Romania and elsewhere in the world?

Personally, I don’t make a fundamental difference between the two. Every artist’s experience on stage stems from their belief in the message they want to convey through the story in which they are involved.

The audience must benefit from artistic products that meet the highest quality standards. Of course, theaters with a long tradition have tougher requirements. It is a greater responsibility to sing in Italian to an Italian audience, or in German to a German audience, for example. Then, there are theaters with well-trained, passionate audiences, with notable previous experience, who will notice even the smallest deviations from the score. From that point of view, I can say that the Romanian public is more lenient...

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t offer them the best performance.

On the other hand, a difference could be made in terms of stage facilities or the quality of productions, which (unfortunately) depend on the allocated budgets. From ambient temperature control, to the level of comfort provided by materials used for costumes or makeup products, I can say that we still have some improvements to make.

Coming back to the audience, I would like to see here talkback sessions organized after each show, allowing spectators to ask questions about the production or about the artists. This would stimulate the desire for knowledge, refine the intellectual discourse and sedimentation of emotions.

What impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on cultural life and the entertainment industry? What do you think will be the long-term effects?

A quality artistic performance requires dedication and thoroughness, many hours of study, which are common among professionals in the entertainment industry, experienced or beginners. However, the personal motivation for an artist is given by meeting with

the audience, by reaping the fruits of their work. I think the same is valid for the world of sports, which is basically a show, a competition for spectators’ delight (in addition to the other psychological functions it has).

It is clear that the arts and sports are not vital to the survival of the human race. Like many other services, we could live without (HoReCa, wellness, etc. - see the simple countryside life). But I am sure that every modern person agrees with the old saying, quoted by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in 1938: “It is by art man gets nearest to the angels and farthest from the animals.”

Another great quotation was attributed to Churchill (even if there is no proof that he actually said that), when he was asked to cut funding to the arts in order to support the war effort: “Then what would we be fighting for?” At least, it invites to reflection.

People have gone through many trials and still returned to theaters and concert halls every time, stimulated by the same impulse that takes them to the cinema even though they could watch the same movie at home. The same goes for stadiums.

This could be a chance for qualitative growth at the expense of quantity, with the public becoming much more selective in choosing events. In other words, a substantial decrease in the amount of kitsch is very plausible, with genuine value prevailing, like separating the wheat from chaff. Obviously, I’m talking about monetized events.

In other words, I think the shows will be tailored to the taste of the audience, with the producers analyzing more the avant-garde or experimental dose included in a classical piece, for example. And, based on that idea, public funding will choose more carefully the gladiators in the arena.

Fortuitously, we are going to reach a new normality, somehow even more “normal” than before. It is the great chance of the public to choose which direction they want to go after this survival game.

What are your near-and medium-term plans?

I have a few contracts abroad starting August, but, in the meantime, I am working on some alternative ways of covering expenses. I am learning new skills in the area of production of monetizable online material, I’m analyzing the possibility of having my doctoral thesis (The Cinematographic SYMPHONISM) published and launched as an e-book, and I’m (finally!) trying to complete a compositional project that I’ve been secretly working on for many years. It is very likely to be a success, because it was designed from the beginning for the general public.

Of course, I am ready to adapt to the new conditions - as they will be revealed to us along the way. If necessary, I won’t exclude the possibility of a “non-artistic” profession, having a qualification as a high voltage electrician (‘Energetic’ High School, remember?).

COMMODITIES

IS URANIUM THE NEXT COMMODITY TO RUN? GTI RESOURCES LOOKS HIGHLY LEVERAGED In September 2019, the World Nuclear Association produced a report modelling a predicted divergence in the supply and demand curve globally for uranium. The report showed demand outstripping supply from 2023.

In other words, there is a looming uranium supply and demand mismatch and the association believes the uranium industry is only a couple of years away from firing again, leaving behind fears of another Fukushima.

There is reason to be positive about nuclear energy: it could play a crucial role in the decarbonisation of the world. Such is the shift in thinking around nuclear’s role to combat climate change, that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is making the rounds in Washington to persuade the United States Congress to spend billions of dollars over the next decade for pilot projects to test new designs for nuclear power reactors.

Gates has said he would personally invest $1 billion and raise $1 billion more in private capital, in combination with federal funds for a pilot of Terrapower’s never-before-used nuclear technology.

Gates founded Terrapower in 2016, so has a vested interest.

“Nuclear is ideal for dealing with climate change, because it is the only carbon-free, scalable energy source that’s available 24 hours a day,” Gates said in his year-end public letter. “The problems with today’s reactors, such as the risk of accidents, can be solved through innovation.” The United States is looming large as a key player in the reinvigoration of the nuclear industry. The United States charge is being led by the current presidential administration, which has unveiled its vision for reclaiming United States nuclear leadership.

The 2021 budget proposes creating a $US1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) triuranium octoxide (U3O8) reserve through 10 years of purchasing $US150 million per annum (circa 3.75 million pounds per annum ) of domestic U3O8 production.

Further congressional approval will be sought to expand this initiative to acquire 17–19 million pounds of U3O8 over 10 years. The 2019 United States production is estimated at only 174,000 pounds.

The United States Energy Department recently approved $221 million to help companies develop advanced reactors and smaller modular reactors in fiscal 2019, above the budget request.

Of course reactors need feed and ASX-listed GTi

Resources is looking to put itself in the mix to supply it. Utah-based GTi Resources has acquired a number of highly prospective, past producing uranium and vanadium properties located in the Henry Mountains, Utah, USA. This is a region with a long history of uranium and vanadium mining, having produced 92 million pounds U3O8 and 482 million pounds of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) at average grades of 2400ppm and 1.25 per cent respectively from the Morrison Formation sandstones, making it easy to mine.

Interestingly, recent XRF sampling by today’s ASX listed, $4.6 million capped company provides evidence of potential high-grade uranium and vanadium mineralisation within the Morrison Formation sandstones. The company’s properties are located within trucking distance of White Mesa Mill, the only operating conventional uranium mill in the United States.

Importantly for this company, its properties lie adjacent to the Tony M mine owned

by Energy Fuels Inc. Tony M contains a remaining NI 43-101 compliant 10.9 million pound combined measured, indicated and inferred resource at 2,183ppm U3O8.

Now it is ready to begin its spring exploration program, which is set to commence next week. The program will follow up on previous high-grade assay results of 1.39 per cent U3O8 and 2.46 per cent V2O5 and 0.12 per cent U3O8 and 3.89 per cent V2O5. This company is sitting on walk up ready drill targets in underexplored ground along trend from historical workings.

There’s a lot to like about this potentially undervalued uranium/vanadium play, especially as uranium is set to become a bigger discussion point in the clean energy revolution.

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special section

L

U X U R Y

&

LIFESTYLE

TOP BRAND

pages 38 - 69

HOROLOGICAL MACHINE N°10 ‘BULLDOG’ The relationship between man and watch is as nuanced as the one between man and dog. The best examples of such connections last for years, even decades, shaping lives and stories. In some cases, the watch chooses its owner as much as the other way around. After all, whether it’s your first or hundredth time, there’s something special about the moment you set eyes on The One. So it is, as they say, with Man’s Best Friend.

Presenting Horological Machine N°10 ‘Bulldog’.

A rounded, compact body of titanium or red gold, coupled with a generous ration of sapphire crystal. Two prominent aluminium time-display “eyes”, rolling at anyone who dares look its way. A collar studded with projections that allow you to wind the mainspring or set the time.

Stout but flexible “legs” that wrap firmly around your wrist. A massive jaw. And above all, a big heart beating steadily at 2.5Hz (18,000vph).

Just like the creature for which it is named, there’s more to HM10 Bulldog than meets the eye. Its hinged jaws open and shut according to the amount of wind left in its mainspring — a fully closed mouth tells you that “Bulldog” is wound down and ready for a nap. If you can clearly see the rows of shining teeth lining the jaws, get ready, because that means “Bulldog” is full of fight, charged up with a 45 hours of mainspring energy. This massive power-reserve indication has been carefully designed and calibrated to consume the least energy possible, allowing HM10 Bulldog to direct its considerable mainspring torque solely towards its suspended balance and its revolving hour and minute domes. Despite its outsize personality — measuring 45mm across, 54mm from nose to tail and with a maximum height of 24mm — HM10 Bulldog is surprisingly wearable. Its sprung strap attachment “legs” allow the body to fit closely around the wrist, with the calf-leather strap as robust as any well-made leash — fastened with either a folding buckle or Velcro system.

Available in both titanium and a combination of titanium and red gold, HM10 Bulldog is assembled with highly distilled expertise in micro-mechanical engineering.

Fitting the requisite elements of timekeeping and time display within such a limited three-dimensional volume, while maintaining top levels of artistry and finish, requires careful balance between technical and aesthetic factors.

TECHNICAL SPECS Horological Machine N°10 ‘Bulldog’ is available in two versions: - Ti version: grade 5 titanium case with blue hour and minute domes; - RT version: 18k red gold and titanium case with black hour and minute domes.

ENGINE Manual-winding in-house movement Frequency: 2.5Hz (18,000bph) Bespoke flying 14mm balance wheel with four traditional regulating screws floating above the domed dials Super-LumiNova on the hour and minute domes and markers Single barrel with 45 hours of power reserve 301 components, 34 jewels Left crown at 11 o'clock for winding; right crown at 1 o'clock for setting the time FUNCTIONS & INDICATIONS Hours on left dome (aluminium dome rotating in 12 hours) Minutes on right dome (aluminium dome rotating in 60 minutes) Power reserve indicated in 3D by the opening and closing of the jaws (end of power reserve = closed jaws).

CASE Version Ti: grade 5 titanium Version RT: 18k 5N+ red gold and grade 5 titanium Dimensions: 54mm x 45mm x 24mm Water resistant to 5ATM / 50m / 160ft SAPPHIRE CRYSTALS 2 sapphire crystals treated with anti-reflective coating on both sides STRAP AND BUCKLE RT version: hand-stitched brown calf-leather strap with custom-designed red gold folding buckle.

Ti version: hand-stitched blue calf-leather strap with Velcro system and titanium buckle.

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LUXURY & LIFESTYLE - TOP BRAND

LEGACY MACHINE PERPETUAL Reinventing the perpetual calendar First launched in 2015, the LM Perpetual has been crafted since in red gold, platinum, white gold and titanium. A new 18k yellow gold case with striking blue face now joins the series: a limited edition of 25 pieces.

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With Legacy Machine Perpetual, MB&F and independent watchmaker Stephen McDonnell have reinvented one of the most complex traditional watchmaking complications: the perpetual calendar.

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The result is Legacy Machine Perpetual, featuring a visually stunning in-house movement – developed from the ground up to eliminate the drawbacks of conventional perpetual calendars.

The fact that the new complication looks sensational and can be fully appreciated dial-side is just one of the many benefits offered by the new movement, controlled by a mechanical processor (patent pending).

LM Perpetual features a fully integrated 581component calibre - no module, no base movement - with a revolutionary new system for calculating the number of days in each month. And it holistically

reinterprets the aesthetics of the perpetual calendar by placing the full complication on dial-free display underneath a spectacular suspended balance.

The perpetual calendar is one of the great traditional complications, calculating the apparently random complexity of the varying numbers of days in each month - including the 29 days in February during leap years. But traditional perpetual calendars do have a few drawbacks: dates can skip; they are relatively easy to damage if adjusted while the date is changing; and the complications are usually compromises of modules powered by base movements.

Legacy Machine Perpetual technical details Legacy Machine Perpetual is available: - in platinum 950 with blue face (limited to 25 pieces); - in 18k red gold with grey face (limited to 25 pieces); - in 18k white gold with purple face (limited to 25 pieces); - in 18k white gold with dark grey face; - in grade 5 titanium with green face (limited to 50 pieces); - and now in 18k yellow gold with blue face (limited to 25 pieces) Engine Fully integrated perpetual calendar developed for MB&F by Stephen McDonnell, featuring dial-side complication and mechanical processor system architecture with inbuilt safety mechanism.

Manual winding with double mainspring barrels. Bespoke 14 mm balance wheel with traditional regulating screws visible on top of the movement. Superlative hand finishing throughout respecting 19th century style; internal bevel angles highlighting hand craft; polished bevels; Geneva waves; hand-made engravings.

Power reserve: 72 hours Balance frequency: 18,000bph / 2.5Hz Number of components: 581 Number of jewels: 41 Functions/indications Hours, minutes, day, date, month, retrograde leap year and power reserve indicators Case Material: 18k 5N+ red gold, 18k white gold, 18k 3N yellow gold, platinum 950, grade 5 titanium.

Dimensions: 44 mm x 17.5 mm Number of components: 69 components Water resistance: 30 m / 90' / 3 atm Sapphire crystals Sapphire crystals on top and display back treated with anti-reflective coating on both faces Strap & buckle Black, grey, brown or blue handstitched alligator strap with gold / platinum / titanium folding buckle matching case material.

THE $280,000 JACOB & CO BUGATTI CHIRON TOURBILLON WATCH COMES WITH ITS OWN ENGINE Jacob & Co Bugatti Chiron 16 Cylinder Tourbillon watch revealed as the latest edition from the partnership between the NYC watchmaker and the French-based hypercar automaker.

This may not be the first watch creation born out of the partnership between New York City-based watchmaker Jacob & Co and hypercar manufacturer Bugatti (the Twin Turbo Furious and Epic X Chrono’s holds that title) but it certainly is the first to feature a miniature replica of a working Bugatti Chiron engine complete with 16 pumping pistons.

Taking a year to develop the concept behind the Chiron 16 Cylinder Tourbillon and perfect the mechanisms, Jacob & Co settled on a watch case made of lightweight black titanium designed to represent the sleek body lines of the Chiron with a similar small egg-shaped grille as its much larger auto-sized counterpart, found at the top of the watch and inscribed with the Bugatti logo. Wanting to give users the chance to “look under the hood”, large see-through sapphire crystal panels are used to ensure as many of the 578 handcrafted components as possible are visible to the naked eye.

Undoubtedly though, the stand-out feature of the Jacob & Co Bugatti 16 Cylinder Tourbillon is the miniature Chiron W16 “engine” nestled at the center of the watch that features a fully functional turning crankshaft connected to 16 pumping pistons. Activated at the push of a button, the engine springs into life for 20 seconds and mimics the actions of the real Chiron engine (just without the 261mph top speed) and if you want to know how much of the 60 hours power reserve is left – just look for the small fuel gauge found to the left of the engine that indicates whether its power reserve is “empty” or “full”.

Much like a real Chiron, the mechanics are held in place by four shock-absorber like coils that make it appear to float in place and allow the mechanism to move up and down within the crystal case while being worn by the user.

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LUXURY & LIFESTYLE - TOP BRAND

DIVER X ANTARCTICA:

TO THE END OF THE EARTH

An ode to Sebastian Copeland’s photography of the Earth’s southernmost continent, Ulysse Nardin’s DIVER X ANTARCTICA is a polar symphony of light, ice and an extension of Copeland’s expression of his deep love for the planet.

Terra Australis, as Antarctica was formerly called - the last continent to be discovered and the Earth’s southernmost, most hostile landmass - has been a source of fascination for explorers, Caliber UN-118, 13¾''' / In-house designed movement Escapement, silicium & Diamonsil technology Functions Power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock / Small direct seconds and round date window at 6 o’clock / Forward and backward date corrector Power reserve 60 hours Case Titanium case with white rubberized bezel Bezel Inverted concave unidirectional rotating bezel Diameter 44 mm Water resistance 300 meters Case back Stamped with the route of the Vendée Globe Strap Rubber and pin buckle strap Price 8’900 CHF

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Movement

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scientists and historians for the two centuries since it was first sighted. A place of mystery and intrigue, the frozen tip of the planet has been fabled destination and source of fascination since Aristotle wrote about a possible Antarctic region in his tome Meteorology circa 350 BC. In an ode to the essence of exploration and all it entails, Ulysse Nardin has designed the DIVER X ANTARCTICA. An avatar in the world of watchmaking, the ANTARCTICA model of the DIVER X is a watch that brings the “X-factor” to tackle world’s roughest seas - in honor of the modern-day Ulysses who choose to risk exploring

this daunting, dangerous place, literally located at the end of the Earth. With its light blue icebergs and frozen ocean, beacons of an age long past, Antarctica has no latitude coordinates, only a location of 90° longitude.

Sebastian Copeland is a photographer who uses his artistic work to communicate messages of urgent global significance. A friend of the Swiss watch manufacture Ulysse Nardin since November 2019 he joined the brand’s armada of modern explorers known as “Team of Ulysses” together with other free-spirited watermen and women: Fred Buyle, Alex Caizergues, Mathieu Crepel, Sebastien Destremau, Ben Thouard and Alessia Zecchini. Sebastian’s images have been seen around the world and his books are a reference for modern explorers as well as for those merely curious about the extreme climate; the cold, dry and windblown, least inhabited continent on Earth.

On the centennial 2011-2012 season of the South Pole, with partner Eric McNair-Landry, Sebastian spent more than his fair share of time in the field, witnessing this marvel of time untouched firsthand.

He led the first East/West transcontinental crossing of Antarctica by skis and kites via two of its poles, setting three world records over the 4100 kilometers during an expedition through the polar desert that lasted a grueling 82 days.

Sebastian is planning a new expedition to cross the Arctic Ocean in 2021.

BACK TO THE TABLE: ROGER DUBUIS UNVEILS EXCALIBUR KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE IV Swiss haute horologerie brand Roger Dubuis is well known for its uncommon and innovative designs, as well as its interesting use of materials, three-dimensional dials, and gemstones. This month, the luxury watchmaker unveiled its newest Excalibur Knights of the Round Table watch— the fourth addition to this super-limited series (ref.

RDDBEX0785). The latest watch features many of the recognizable features seen on previous iterations of this design, now updated with the brand’s latestgeneration movement and a fully gem-set dial.

The new watch uses a 45-mm rose gold case, with an uncommonly fluted bezel surrounding the dial and a matching crown protected by subtle guards. The case is integrated with the black alligator strap via three pronged lugs, and secured to the wrist with a rose-gold adjustable folding buckle.

Moving to the dial of watch— which is clearly its crowing jewel — we find a fascinating threedimensional design complete with an assortment of whites, ruby reds, and rose golds. On the outer edges are 12 figures meant to represent the twelve legendary knights of King Arthur’s court, each produced via a Low Poly design art inspiration whereby 3D figures and images are developed using a minimum number of polygons— an interesting minimalistic design choice in what is clearly a maximalist luxury design. Each of the figures are cast in rose gold and finished by hand, with their pointed swords acting as hour indicators.The remaining sections of the dial are decorated with 3D solid

enamel or rose-gold blocks, with the angled outer section and inner flatter section distinguishing the inner section of the “round table” from the outer

edges. The round table of the watch serves a dual symbolic role in the myth of King Arthur, not only being the meeting place of the 12 knights of legend, but also representing the island of Avalon where Arthur first drew Excalibur. Passing over the dial and indicating the time are two slim triangular hands with round back ends. Inside the new model is Roger Dubuis’ latest time-only movement, the new automatic Caliber RD821. The movement is comprised of 172 components, completely hand finished and partially visible via a stylized sapphire caseback. The caseback not only features another motif to the round table, but is also engraved on its edge with the knights’ pledge put forth by the wizard Merlin, as told by Roger Dubuis and found

on all of the watches in the Knights of the Round Table series: “Around this table, the bravest knights will gather as equals. They will set forth in search of adventure, righting wrongs, protecting the weak and humbling the proud.” Pricing for the new Roger Dubuis Excalibur Knights of the Round Table is available upon request, with production slated to be limited to 28 editions.

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LUXURY & LIFESTYLE - TOP BRAND

ECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS BIG BANG ONE CLICK 39 MM MARC FERRERO CERAMIC BLACK & WHITE Limited to 100 pieces CASE - Satin-finished and polished black Ceramic Diameter: 39mm Thickness: 12.55mm Water resistance: 10 ATM (100m) CASE-BACK Polished black Ceramic Engraved “LIMITED EDITION” XXX/100 BEZEL - Polished black plated Ceramic - Set with 42 diamonds for ~1.00ct MOVEMENT - HUB1710 Self-winding movement Frequency: 4Hz (28’800 A/h) Power reserve: ~ 50 hours No. of Components: 166 Jewels: 27 STRAP & BUCKLE Black and white Calf leather and black Rubber strap, designed by “Marc Ferrero” Black Alligator and black Rubber strap with black stitching Stainless Steel deployant buckle clasp BIG BANG ONE CLICK 39 MM MARC FERRERO STEEL WHITE Limited to 100 pieces CASE - Satin-finished and polished stainless Steel Diameter: 39mm Thickness: 12.55mm Water resistance: 10 ATM (100m)

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CASE-BACK - Satin-finished stainless Steel Engraved “LIMITED EDITION” XXX/100

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BEZEL - Polished stainless Steel - Set with 42 diamonds for ~1.00ct MOVEMENT HUB1710 Self-winding movement Frequency: 4Hz (28’800 A/h) Power reserve: ~ 50 hours No. of Components: 166 Jewels: 27

BIG BANG ONE CLICK MARC FERRERO For its second artistic collaboration with the master of Storytelling Art, Hublot invites ‘Lipstick’, Marc Ferrero’s most emblematic work, back onto the dial of its Big Bang One Click 39mm.

In white or black, symbolising inseparable complementarity, it illustrates the universal duality of day and night. An essential white that is subtle/minimalist, seductive without being a seducer. A deep black that is audacious and magnetic. Two watches to remind us that the day without the night is not a day, and that the night without the day is not a night.

"I love the power of black and white. Shade and light. Yin and Yang.

One is profound, unclassifiable, eternal. The other is subtle, ethereal, timeless. They symbolise antitheses and complementarity. Choosing black and white means getting straight to the point without an excess of tonalities. The black and white make ‘Lipstick’ even more graphic and its red lipstick—more magnetic." Marc Ferrero

FROM COLOUR TO BLACK AND WHITE This time, the artist known for his typically colourful palette tells a story in black and white, in the form of two limited-edition numbered models in a run of 100 pieces.

One, in satin-finish polished steel and resin, with a lacquered dial and calf and rubber strap, all in white. The other, in black ceramic with a lacquered dial and calf and rubber strap, in a pairing of black and white. Two opposites that attract and complement each other. Marc Ferrero conveys the message of a free woman in this iconic duo of watches, by affixing his work from the dial and extending to the strap.

Playing with contrasts, only the lipstick asserts itself in colour, in a flashy red, a reminder that, underneath the large black glasses, ‘Lipstick’ is paying tribute to the woman of the 21st century. A heroine of modern times, multifaceted, assured and enigmatic. A woman who dares to do anything, directly, and without subterfuge.

HUBLOT BIG BANG MP-11 RED MAGIC WATCH WITH 14-DAY POWER RESERVE High-tech ceramic returns in bright red for the new MP-11 Hublot’s ability to bring the primary colors into luxury watchmaking while retaining an air of sophistication is once again on display with the release of the Hublot Big Bang MP-11 Red Magic.

It shouldn’t work. Although red has enjoyed a long career as the go-to accent color in horology (especially when it comes to sports models), it isn’t very easy to get right when deployed as the base color. There are very few brands that can apply such a bright and bold color to a case and pull it off.

At an entry-level price point, the most red you’re likely to see is when brands opt for a red dial. Even that is risky. It has been done well on occasion, but rarely with a scarlet shade. Maroon, claret, or burgundy are safer bets. Going full, fire-engine red on a dial takes excellent execution to look anything other than cheap. Taking that color and implementing it in a case is a different ballgame entirely. If you want a realworld example of how to do it well, the Hublot Big Bang MP-11 Red Magic watch is happy to oblige.

The ultra-luxury sphere In the ultra-luxury sphere, there is precedent for primarily red watches. HYT has a way with primary colors. Ulysse Nardin recently experimented with bright red epoxy mixed with carbon, resulting in the memorable “Magma” model. Richard Mille has frequently taken on the challenge of making red watches fresh, and succeeded (at least in the eyes of the brand’s faithful, and those with deep enough pockets to add one to their collection).

High-tech ceramic production But when it comes to creative color use, Hublot is undoubtedly one of the brands leading the charge. While the results are not to everyone’s tastes, the brand has dedicated significant time, energy, and financial resources to widening

the palette one can expect to find in its catalog. The first step was to master high-tech ceramic production. Models such as the Big Bang Unico Red Magic and Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Orlinski Red Ceramic paved the way for this release. Hublot has once again delved into the minds of their mad scientists to bring us the Big Bang MP-11 Red Magic. Mechanically, this watch is a beast. With 270 components, the HUB9011 manual-winding movement is a skeletonized stunner. Seven horizontally-stacked barrels provide a tasty 14-day power reserve. The trade-off for this extreme performance is the height of the watch. The MP-11 is no shrinking violet: A bulging sapphire crystal makes space for the linked barrels and increases the height on the wrist to 14.4mm at its highest point. It was, therefore, wise for Hublot to make this watch handwound as opposed to automatic.

100 pieces available The 45mm diameter means that before you raid your piggy bank for the €85,000 asking price, you might need to put a few bucks aside every month for a new gym membership. Assuming, however, you either have the forearms of Zeus or the effortless cool of Morgan Freeman, feel free to skip that part and head straight for the boutique.

Hurry, though: There will only be 100 of these pieces available. Learn more about Hublot and its research into new materials here.

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LUXURY & LIFESTYLE - TOP BRAND

INTRODUCING HUBLOT BIG BANG SANG BLEU II The cult tattoo artist and designer Maxime Buchi is back in blue for another limited edition of his wrist sculpture.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Case: 45mm diameter x 16.50mm height - titanium or King Gold - polished and satin-finished surfaces black rubber-clad crown rectangular chronograph pushers - sapphire crystal front and back - 100m water-resistance

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Dial: matte blue, skeletonised

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Movement: HUB1240.MXM UNICO manufacture automatic flying chronograph with column wheel 28,000vph/4Hz - 72h power reserve - 330 components 38 jewels Strap: blue rubber with black border - Sang Bleu titanium or King Gold deployant clasp References: 418.NX.5107.RX.MXM20 titanium limited to 200 pieces 418.OX.5108.RX.MXM20 King Gold limited to 100 pieces Price: EUR 24,800 titanium EUR 46,600 gold

During the LVMH Watch Week in Dubai, Hublot has unveiled its Big Bang Integral collection with integrated bracelets and the third iteration of tattoo artist Maxime Buchi’s Big Bang Unico Sang Bleu II chronograph. The overall design and functionality of the Sang Bleu II are identical to the two existing models, but the colour scheme for 2020 is matte blue, the same blue used by the tattoo artist for his creations. An audacious (to say the least) combination of geometry and volume, this latest Sang Blue II chronograph is a limited edition of 100 pieces in King Gold and 200 in titanium.

THE “IT” TATTOO ARTIST Collaborations, partnerships, limited editions, bespoke editions, designer watch straps, you name it… Many watch brands are on the hunt for originality and the highly desired ‘cool’ factor that will attract millennials. Since its eruption on the market in 2005, the Big Bang collection has been all about audacious, overthe-top, contemporary and often explosive design coupled with innovative materials. Since tattoos are all the rage, Hublot decided to reach out to Maxime Buchi, the “it tattoo artist” of our times. As one of the most sought-after and hip tattoo artists, with studios in Zurich and London and a design agency – named Sang Blue, dedicated to artistic design ranging from sunglasses to capsule collections for brands like Nike – Buchi is the incarnation of contemporary cool.

THE SANG BLEU II Following the highly successful (sold out) first edition of the Sang Bleu in 2016, Hublot came out with a soupedup second edition in 2019 with chronograph functionality and an even more complex 3D dial. Like the secondgeneration Big Bang Sang Bleu II models in the collection with black dials and black rubber straps, the imposing 45mm case of this new model bristles with edges and angles and the seemingly

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endless juxtaposition of geometric shapes. Available in titanium and Hublot’s proprietary King Gold, the shape of some elements of the Big Bang case have succumbed to the geometric shapes Buchi uses in his tattoos (look at the one on his head and you’ll see what we mean). The bezel abandons its usual round shape for a hexagonal profile with the classic 6 Hshaped titanium screws.

Even the central metal lip extending from the case to the rubber strap features an engraved triangle to perpetuate the dizzying array of shape upon geometric shape. The surfaces exalt the geometry with alternating polished and satin-brushed finishes. A black rubber-clad crown and the rectangular chronograph pushers complete the casing, which is water-resistant to 100m.

COMPLEX DIAL The skeletonised dial performs similar feats of 3D geometric acrobatics with countless layers that create an intense sensation of depth and complexity. Reading the time takes some practice and consulting elapsed times on the sub-counter is a serious challenge. This has obviously not been designed as a performance chronograph, although stopping and resetting the chronograph seconds hand offers some extra functionality. A central seconds hand for the chronograph, extending across the entire diameter of the dial, indicates the seconds against the inclined matte blue seconds track. The hours are minutes are indicated by arrow-shaped hands placed on

quadrilateral kite-shaped structures. There are two hexagonal rotating subdials tucked under the profusion of elements, the one at 3 o’clock for the elapsed minutes and the one on the left for the small seconds.

There is also a date window, tucked in between 4 and 5 o’clock on the matte blue ring for the hours.

As the central hour and minute hands rotate around the dial parts of the movement can be seen.

A sapphire caseback reveals the Hublot Manufacture Unico automatic flyback chronograph movement (HUB1240.MXM) with column wheel. Running at a frequency of 28,800 vibrations/hour the power reserve is of 72 hours. The rotor is designed by Buchi.

STRAP AND PRICES The thematic matte blue colour extends to the rubber strap that features an elongated V-shape to match the triangle on the lugs and has a black rubber border and a black-plated deployant buckle. Both editions of this very bold Hublot Big Bang Sang Bleu II are limited editions: 200 in titanium and 100 in gold.

LUXURY & LIFESTYLE - TOP BRAND

ULYSSE NARDIN FREAK X MAGMA AND FREAK X ICE Key facts and price Freak X Magma Diameter: 43 mm Material: Red carbon fibre and DLC titanium (Magma); titanium with a matte white coating (Ice)

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Water resistance: 30 m Movement: UN-230 Functions: Hours and minutes

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Winding: Automatic Frequency: 21,600 beats per hour (3 Hz) Power reserve: 72 hours Strap: Textured black leather (Magma) and white leather with rubber coating (Ice) Availability: From May onwards exclusively at Ulysse Nardin boutiques (Magma); from June 2020 onwards (Ice) Price: €27,000 (Magma) & €24,000 (Ice)

Cold as ice, hot as lava... Ulysse Nardin, which carries the words of extreme and discovery in its creation, reveals the extreme states of nature with its new models Freak X Magma and Freak X Ice. Is your bucket list ready? Which one of your dreams is in the first place? Which watch will you be wearing on your wrist while fulfilling this extreme dream?

On the one hand, some dream of extreme dreams, and on the other hand, some turn the word "extreme" into a philosophy of life.

One of these people is Carsten Peter, World Press Photographs awarded National Geographic photographer. Peter, who explored the caves in Borneo, crossed the Sahara Desert with camels and dive under the ice in Mont Blanc, lives on the edge by his camera.

Carsten Peter is highly obsessed with developing innovative photographic techniques to capture never seen before images of the scariest environments on the planet. His incredible adventures include activities like toxic caves, turbulent lava lakes, active volcanoes, and breaking altitude records while motorized paragliding. Peter, who has received an Emmy for the World Press Photographs award by taking a photo of a tornado in America, and videography he took by entering an active volcano in the South Pacific, lives the spirit of Ulysse Nardin

at its best. Let’s get to the other adventurers who meet with us in partnership with Carsten Peter and Ulysse Nardin. Ulysse Nardin Freak X Magma (Ref. 2303-270 / MAGMA-BQ) and Freak X Ice (Ref. 2303-270 / 00), reflect the lifestyle of the award-winning photographer and adventurer Carsten Peter. Made by the seismic combination of ultra-light carbon fiber and red, marble epoxy resin, each Freak X Magma timepiece is unique. The scratchresistant and streamlined watch comes in a 43mm black DLC-plated titanium case. Both watches resist water pressure up to 50 meters. Thanks to the sapphire crystal case back, the movement is fully enjoyed. The manufacture automatic movement Caliber UN-230, providing a 72-hour power reserve, powers the watches.

Super-LumiNOVA applied bridges and markers of Freak X Magma and Freak X Ice offer another visual feast, especially when the light is insufficient.

Ulysse Nardin Freak X Magma comes on a black leather strap called 'Volcanic rock' while the matt, white-finished Titanium case model, the Freak X Ice, is complemented by a rubber-coated white leather strap.

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HALL OF FAME

2020 AWARDS With its strong and diverse tradition in creating new platforms for the business community to share their views and ideas, and in recognizing business success and achievements, spanning over 10 years, Business Arena is launching a new project designed to expand the scope of its annual award ceremonies, adding a new gala to its events calendar.

The Brand Excellence Hall of Fame Awards is the fourth major gala event in Business Arena’s portfolio, joining the list alongside the Awards for Excellence, Most Admired Business Women Awards and Financial Leaders’ Hall of Fame.

Innovation, resourcefulness, perseverance and a culture of responsible risk-taking have helped many overcome major challenges. Thus, the new awards gala recognizes organizations that have achieved outstanding results through initiatives that demonstrate excellence in brand management.

20.00 - 20.30 Registration and welcome cocktail; 20.30 - 21.15 Awards ceremony (part one); 21.15 - 21.30 Live music, fashion presentation; 21.30 - 22.15 Awards ceremony (part two); 22.15 - 22.30 Live music; fashion presentation.

Celebrating achievement, innovation, and strong brand strategy, the 2020 Brand Excellence Hall of Fame Awards cover the following categories: • Automotive Brand of the Year; • Best Pharmaceutical Brand of the Year; • Brand of the Year in Hospitality; • IT Brand of the Year; • Most Admired Telecom Brand; • Best Real Estate Brand; • Romanian Brand of the Year; • Retail Brand of the Year; • Romanian Banking Brand of the Year; • Best Banking Brand; • Most Admired Banking Product

HAUTE COUTURE SPRING 2020

AT LOUIS VUITTON, NOSTALGIA FOR THE FUTURE Nicolas Ghesquière’s Vuitton shows can come across as dry, but this one felt different.

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At Louis Vuitton, protocol is front and centre and Nicolas Ghesquière’s shows are strict ceremonies. Guests arrive at the Place du Carrousel — I. M. Pei's glass pyramid in front of them, the Louvre Palace at the right and the left — and, then, enter a smaller courtyard where the show is staged inside a giant box, nothing immediately visible of the set. It requires quite a few words to describe the process of arriving at the show. It's a long walk to get there, too.

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After last season's Centre Pompidou extravaganza — the brand reproduced the iconic, 'inside-out' art museum as the set for the show — this season the mise-en-scène was stripped back: all blond wood, and a video projection of the underground artist Sophie singing “It's Ok To Cry.” This season, the designer was not available for post-show interviews, but the house distributed a prepackaged Q&A saying the collection reflected the spirit of La Belle Époque, a brief time of frenzied change and burgeoning modernity from the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. From there, Ghesquière ruminated on the obsolete and the forgotten, and ultimately on the dandyism, snobbery and extravagance which are the roots of French elegance. It was a lot, pointing in many different directions, but Ghesquière is a master in creating unity from disparate elements. His angular signature keeps it all together.

Vuitton shows can come across as dry, but this one felt different. It was almost psychedelic, swirling with pattern and colour. Apart from a couple of Sarah Bernhardt looks in the finale, and some fierce mannishdandy tailoring, the Belle Epoque was mostly about the spirit, not the shapes: freewheeling and open-minded, pointing right, style-wise, at the debauchery of the 60s and early 70s — short, svelte and with boots. There was a lot of vintage thrown in, but everything was collaged together and got the ultra-modern, Ghesquière treatment. Was it nostalgic? Most definitely.

Nostalgia of the future, that is.

Rather lively, too.

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PERSONALIZED ELEGANT EXPERIENCE

A COMPLETE CUSTOM-MADE WARDROBE, TAILORED WITH PASSION AND PRECISION, SPECIALLY CRAFTED FOR YOU The Consiglieri brand was born out of the desire to offer men complete wardrobe solutions. From business suits or ceremonial outfits to smart-casual jackets, jeans and sports shoes, Consiglieri creates clothing items that are a real pleasure.

The products are unique, specially created for each individual, customized to the smallest detail, under the guidance of a dedicated consultant.

The Consiglieri experience begins with a meeting, taking place at the showroom on Aleea Alexandru. With the help of a specialist, the key elements of a custom-made wardrobe are chosen. The aim is to create a tailor-made masterpiece with a "touch" of personality. The end result is a personalized element, a proof of the style and elegance of its wearer.

Our fabrics are woven by the best fabric suppliers in the world: Loro Piana, Ermenegildo Zegna, Scabal, Dormeuil, Thomas Mason.

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The specialized counseling offered by the Consiglieri team covers a wide range of aspects, from the best materials and fabrics, to the correct choice of items that complete the outfit intended for each occasion. We want to offer a unique, custom-made experience to our customers, so they can discover the importance of a garment made to match their personality.

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The unique footwear concept Consiglieri “Made-to-Order� offers an exclusive selection of Oxford and Derby shoes, loafers and double-monk shoes, as well as sneakers that complement and enhance each outfit.

Our mission is to become reliable partners for the creation of a complete wardrobe, both for the professional environment and for leisure.

Made-to-order jeansand shoes made in Italy for any style of clothing Chinos or jeans have become more and more common in office attire, but only those made to measure have an elegant line and provide a flawless look throughout the day. At Consiglieri, each pair of jeans or five-pocket pants is specially tailored to the size of the wearer, while respecting his personal style. Basically, you can be the creator of your own pair of jeans, having the possibility to choose the color of the fabric, the type of buttons, the lining of the pockets and the customization options.

Whether you choose to wear a lightweight suit or a pair of jeans, a shirt and a jacket, at Consiglieri you will find those custom-made shoes that ensure a successful look. Oxford or Derby shoes are recommended for a more formal style, while "casual Friday" becomes an opportunity for you to express your personality with Italian casual shoes, made in accordance with the principles of luxury shoe manufacturing. Each pair of shoes is custom made and customized manually.

Each visit to Consiglieri is scheduled by phone or e-mail. In a private setting, a dedicated fashion consultant will guide you in creating a complete wardrobe, perfectly tailored to your measurements and in accordance with your professional environment and lifestyle.

Showroom: 7A Aleea Alexandru, Bucharest / www.Consiglieri.ro

AUTUMN/WINTER 2020

BALENCIAGA FW20 DELIVERS POWERFUL MESSAGE ON CLIMATE CHANGE Balenciaga has taken to Paris Fashion Week for Fall/Winter 2020 with full force.

The luxury label delivered commentary on climate change and a menacing, mostlyblack assortment for the cold weather season, remixing house signatures and adventurous new items alike.

Creative director Demna Gvasalia‘s latest designs walked down a flooded runway while LED graphics on the ceiling mimicked rain, fire and thunder. The dramatic staging also left Balenciaga’s first three rows completely empty, meaning showgoers were detached from the presentation. This move aimed to highlight the menace of climate change.

Referencing the atmosphere were pieces such as full-length scuba uniforms complete with form-fitting footwear.

However, this was contrasted with plenty of niche references, ranging from Balenciaga’s football-indebted Zen shoes playing into a full soccer-referencing look complete with socks, shorts and a top to bold motorcycle-ready leathers. Several models even strode the waterlogged runway wearing Vibram’s divisive Five Finger sneaker, better known as “toe shoes.”

Leather and black shades played a considerable part in Balenciaga’s FW20 collection, with trousers, massively-oversized outerwear, boots, sneakers and heels all executed in muted hides.

Elsewhere, shoulders were exaggerated, several items were rendered androgynous — like the thigh-high boots for men — and rounding out its presentation was a number of standout sculptural pieces, such as the spiked rubber jacket.

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HOW TO BUILD YOUR OFFICE WARDROBE

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O UTFIT: TRENDS BY A DINA B UZATU P HOTOS BY VALI B ARBULESCU

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Your office attire should be polished, comfortable and injected with a dose of personality. You might think that it’s easy to build an outfit for your every working day, but as a business man, you need to create a mature and stylish look that will inspire self-confidence and trust to your partners.

From colors to fabric, from cut to fit and to all the accessories needed to complete the look, here are a few tips you should take in consideration when building your office wardrobe.

The ideal suit colors The formal suits colors generally accepted for the office attire are the solid shades of charcoal grey and navy. The charcoal grey one is non-negotiable. When you start creating your office wardrobe, this is the first suit you should buy. The best part with this suit is that it’s versatile enough so you can wear it at the office with a light blue shirt and tie, then you can switch to the evening dress code in the same suit but with a white shirt and black shoes. After the navy and grey suits, you can experiment with patterns like plaid, houndstooth or herringbone. And if you want to go even further, in the latest trends, more vibrant colors like burgundy and green or light shades of blue are again on the radar. So you can skip the basics and choose a more daring suit. You can find excellent quality business suits in different colors and prints in TRENDS by Adina Buzatu store.

The fabric The best suits are those made of wool or a wool-silk blend which is a good option for all seasons. This fabric is full and heavy and it looks good on any type of body. But since it’s summer and the high temperatures require more airy fabrics, you can buy a linen suit especially for the hot season.

There are brands that create linen suits especially for office attire.

The right cut and fit In order to accentuate a classic look, choose a single breasted jacket and opt for a notched lapel over the peaked one. And always go for a two button jacket because it’s the safest bet to flatter your figure. In terms of fit, you can go slimmer than ever. Due to the latest trends in suits style, the slimmer the better. But be careful!

This doesn’t mean that you need to get into super skinny trousers and jacket. Balance is the key. Your pants should follow your legs line but still make you feel comfortable when sitting down and their hem should sit right at the top of your shoes. The jacket sleeves should end one-half inch above your shirt cuffs and your shoulder

seams should not extend beyond your shoulder. In TRENDS by Adina Buzatu store you can get all the advice you need in order to choose the perfect suit for your business look.

The shirt When it comes to dress shirts, a classic clean cut in white cotton is the perfect choice to complete your office attire. Still, since it’s summer and maybe you want to add a bit of color to your formal suit, you can go for light blue, pale pink and lilac.

Regarding the fit, choose a shirt in a slim fit, never a version in a large cut. Stay away for those types of shirts with baggy sleeves and cinched cuffs, those with excess of fabric underneath the armpits or those that are very large around the waist. The best thing you can do is to shop your shirt at the same time as your suit, so that you get the entire outfit. If you can’t decide on shapes, size or colors, again, you can ask Adina Buzatu to guide you to your best options. Also, you can check the website www.adinabuzatu.ro to see the items before you arrive in the store.

The accessories Once you have your basic outfit done, it’s time to accessorize! First thing first – the tie. You can’t get your office look complete without the tie. Since the tie should reflect your personality but, in the same time, it’s meant to inject some creativity to your outfit, choose a strong solid shade or prints like classic stripes or interesting florals or paisley.

Definitely, stay away from florescent colors or childish patterns. The pocket square is another essential accessory to add even more personality to your suit. Choose a printed one but never matched or in the same fabric of your tie.

Tie bars, lapel pins, cuff links they are all nice accessories that have the power to change your formal suit in a good way. But be careful on how many you use and how you match them. Don’t overdo it! Use no more than one or maximum two accessories per outfit.

The shoes Last but not least, the shoes that will finish your look are as important as the suit. Since the shoes are the indicator of your style, pay attention on how you choose and match them with the color of your suit. If your suit is navy or charcoal grey, stick with brown leather Oxford shoes. Black double monk-strap shoes are a good option, as well.

Enjoy your shopping, my dears!

We are waiting for you in our TRENDS by Adina Buzatu shop in Baneasa Shopping City, Road Bucharest-Ploiesti no. 42 D, ground floor and on www.adinabuzatu.ro

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AUTO

KOENIGSEGG GEMERA BUILD SLOT ALREADY AVAILABLE AT MCLAREN DEALER High-end dealer specialized in all things McLaren also has Sweden's four-seat hypercar.

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Koenigsegg took the not-a-Geneva-Motor-Show by storm last month with the unveiling of the Gemera, a fully fledged hypercar that happens to have two rear seats. More practical than the Speedtail and its nifty F1-esque three-seat layout, the Gemera likely offers the fastest way to haul your significant other and two kids. Speaking of McLaren, North Carolina-based McLaren Charlotte has Sweden’s first four-seater model for sale.

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Mind you, production of the Gemera hasn’t started, so what the dealer is actually selling is a build slot. Koenigsegg has said only 300 examples of its high-performance grand tourer will be produced, and while the listing doesn’t mention the price tag, we do know the company’s head honcho Christian von Koenigsegg told Top Gear the U.S.-spec model would carry an eye-watering starting price of $1.7 million.

McLaren Charlotte focuses on products built in Woking as the dealer’s name suggests, but it also has some other high-end cars for sale.

Relevant examples include a $194,996 Aston Martin DB11 AMR, a 124,996 Audi R8 Spyder, and a $284,996 Ferrari 488 Spider, not to mention a crazy-expensive $399,996 Rolls-Royce Cullinan and additional cars from other brands that only one-percenters can afford.

The Gemera is listed by the dealer with a gray paint and an orange interior, which could mean the build slot is for a spec similar to the showcar. It apparently carries the VIN 001 number and that would imply McLaren Charlotte has managed to secure the very first production car, provided the listing is entirely accurate.

Build slot aside, the Koenigsegg Gemera is shaping up to be a remarkable car beyond its four-seat layout made possible by the unusually long wheelbase of 118.1 inches (three meters). It’s powered by a three-cylinder (yes, a three-pot) 2.0liter gasoline engine producing 600 hp and 442 pound-feet (600 Newton-meters) of torque while working with three electric motors – one on the crankshaft and one for each rear wheel for a combined 1,700 hp and a whopping 2,580 lbft (3,498 Nm).

Despite being large enough to

carry four adults, the Gemera is still a rocket, needing a mere 1.9 seconds to hit 62 mph (100 km/h) on its way to 250 mph (402 km/h) in “record-matching pace.” That’s mighty impressive considering the company is targeting a dry weight of 1,715 kilograms (3,781 pounds) by going with a smaller 15-kWh battery pack and a tiny combustion engine weighing just 70 kg (154 lbs). Had it been fully electric, Christian von

Koenigsegg says it would’ve tipped the scales at around 2,300 kg (5,070 lbs) due to larger batteries.

As if all of these feats were not impressive enough, the familyfriendly Koenigsegg can also work as an EV for 31 miles (50 kilometers) and has a total range of 621 miles (1,000 km) with the gasoline tank full and the battery pack completely charged.

AUTO

NEXT 2023 MAZDA6 SAID TO FOLLOW A BMW FORMULA WITH RWD, INLINE-SIX AND A COUPE VERSION Mazda stepped up their game with the current ‘6’ sedan and it’s been reported that the next-generation model will go even further – a lot further, actually.

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Car & Driver reports the redesigned sedan should arrive by late 2022 and follow a very BMWlike formula. According to the publication, the model will ride on a new rear-wheel drive platform and feature a longitudinal engine layout. There are little details about the latter, but the publication says we can expect an inline-six with Skyactiv-X technology and a 48volt mild-hybrid system.

Interestingly, the publication suggests the six-cylinder engine could also be used in the next-generation Lexus IS and RC. Little is known about those particular models, but previous reports have suggested they should arrive early this decade.

Getting back on the Mazda6, the car is

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expected to resemble the Vision Coupe concept which debuted at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show – and despite its name, was actually a sports sedan with four doors. There’s no word on specifics at this point, but the concept was an elegant fourdoor coupe which featured a long hood, streamlined bodywork and a compact greenhouse. While the concept had a four-seat interior, the 2023 Mazda6 would likely retain its more practical five-person layout.

However, that might not be entirely true as the publication said there is a chance that the nextgeneration Mazda6 could spawn a two-door coupe. That’s certainly interesting and it would help to fill the void left by the elimination of the RX series. While it would likely eschew rotary engines, it would be nice seeing another Mazda coupe.

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APEX AP-0 EV SPORTS CAR CONCEPT PROMISES TO PACK A LOT OF EVERYTHING With 650 horsepower, a 320-mile range and 0-62 mph in 2.3 seconds, it could be an electric sports car rocket ship.

The 2020 Geneva Motor Show's cancellation robbed startup Apex of its big day to debut the AP-0 concept, so it readied a backup. At a standalone event on Friday in London, the company showed the electric sports car concept and detailed what to expect from a production version down the road.

Apex, based in Hong Kong, calls England its second home, with a design and manufacturing hub there, and although everything you see here is conceptual, Apex promises production in two years.

The AP-0's basic bones start with a fully composite structural monocoque tub, modular space frames and a center "spine" to link the front and rear of the car. The body wraps these bones in a carbon-fiber chassis. At the bottom sits a 90 kilowatt-hour battery pack that sits deep within to help improve the center of gravity. Altogether, the AP-0 concept weighs 2,645 pounds and it's about 10 inches longer and wider than a Mazda Miata.

Apex didn't provide specifics on the powertrain, but this is a concept, after all. All it said was to expect 650 horsepower, a 0-62 mph time of 2.3 seconds and a top speed of 190 mph. How many motors and where the power flows is a mystery for now. On European testing standards, the company also expects a range of 320 miles.

The design seems rather production-friendly overall and I particularly dig the fin at the rear

along with the lighting cluster. Funnily enough, the fin actually houses lidar for driver-assistance systems. For an EV sports car ready for the track, I'm a tad puzzled as to why lidar, promised Level 3 partial autonomy and active safety systems are a big part of the package, but perhaps Apex has other plans down the road.

Where things get a tad more optimistic is the cockpit. Apex said this car will feature augmented reality to create an AR race instructor. The company said the instructor will help drivers learn on the track through gamification and help create an even more immersive experience. The AP-0 will also get new functions via over-the-air updates to boost the instructor's abilities. Otherwise, the cabin's full of carbon fiber, aluminum, leather and some seriously futuristic looks. The display features three panels for the driver and a center screen that hardly looks production-ready.

Now, it's full speed ahead for Apex. The company said production should start in the final quarter of 2022, so we're a little shy of three years away. If Apex can deliver a production AP-0 like this concept, it'll be pretty wild, but not cheap. The estimated starting price is around $185,000 at current exchange rates.

AUTO

8 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE LOTUS EVIJA Other than the fact it's going be crazy fast.

The Lotus Evija aims to push the boundaries of modern hypercar technology. The British sports car company is going full electric for the drivetrain and claims it's building the most powerful production car on the planet. Also on the menu for the Evija is a crazy fast-charging system, race car styling cues, leading-edge aerodynamics, butterfly doors, and an interior packed with style and technology.

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The world has been put on notice that Lotus isn't just a sports car manufacturer anymore, and that it plans on taking on the big guns in the electric hypercar arena. Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming Lotus Evija.

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THE NAME EVIJAH: WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Evija is pronounced "eh-VIE'-ya" by Lotus and, according to the sports car maker, means 'the first in existence' or 'the living one.' It refers to the triple-threat of the Evija being Lotus's first electric car, first hypercar, and it's the first car produced under its new corporate overlords, Geely.

According to an origin of names website, Evija is a Latvian girl's name with Hebrew origins.

POWERTRAIN AND PERFORMANCE: ALL THE POWER The Lotus Evija's crazy power figures come courtesy of four electric motors and a mid-mounted 70 kWh battery pack. The drive technology is provided by Integral Powertrain, who also provided technology for Volkswagen's I.D. R project. The numbers are staggering, with Lotus claiming the Evija makes 1,972 horsepower and 1,254 ft-lb of torque Torque vectoring technology is a given, but according to Lotus, the Evija's all-wheel-drivetrain is capable of being pushed at wide-open throttle without a reduction in power for at least 7 minutes in Track mode. That means there's no need for a Qualification drive mode to go with Range, City, Tour, Sport, and Track. The Evija will hit 186 mph in under nine seconds after sprinting to 62 mph in under three seconds before reaching e a top speed of over 200 mph.

CHASSIS: PURE LOTUS Throughout its history, Lotus has put most of its focus on handling over raw power. Lotus's founder Colin Chapman's most famous quote is to "simplify, then add lightness," with the company pioneering the stressed monocoque chassis in race cars.

Lotus road cars have also been subjected to this

mantra, and the Evija will be no exception.

According to Lotus, the electric hypercar weighs just 3,700 lbs. For reference, that's close in weight to a current Ford Mustang GT, while a Tesla Model S weighs between 4,883 to 4,941 lbs. Also, according to Lotus, at 3,700 lbs, this will make the Evija the lightest EV hypercar ever when it enters production.

STYLE: PRACTICAL AESTHETICS Everything about the Evija says it's a hypercar, but there's some amazing practical design built into the sleek jet-fighter aesthetic. Both rear-quarter panels make use of Venturi tunnels using airflow through the bodywork to its advantage, and the exits are ringed with red LED lighting for that dramatic effect. Exterior wing mirrors create drag, so Lotus is using cameras that automatically raise out when the doors are unlocked and send the images to screens inside. The rear spoiler sits flush with the bodywork until it's needed and becomes active to adjust itself to how the car is being driven.

The Evija sits at just 4.1 inches off the ground on staggered magnesium wheels. The rear wheels are 21-inch discs while the fronts measure 20 inches. As for lighting, Lotus claims it will be the first production car to use laser lights for its primary and dipped beams.

INTERIOR: RETRO HYPERCAR The Evija is a two-seater, with the cabin accessed through remote-controlled handleless doors. The doors are then closed via a button placed overhead. A concession to weight is made through electrically adjustable seats, which are based around a carbon-fiber shell with thick padding underneath the microfiber surface material. The interior is clearly influenced by the 1960's era Lotus racing cars, but the technology is pure 21st century. There's a full digital display for the driver set into the bare-bones yet beautifully sculpted dashboard, and the race-style steering wheel is fully adjustable. Standard belts come with the Evija, but there's an option for four-point harnesses instead.

RANGE & CHARGING Lotus hasn't made any specific claims about range yet based on national standards, but we're expecting about 200 to 250 miles when being driven like an average car. The fascinating thing is that Lotus says charging will take about as much time as drinking a cup of coffee at the gas station. The technology is claimed by Lotus to allow the Evija to be charged to 80 percent in just 12 minutes, while a full charge will take 18 minutes.

TRIM: ONE TRIM LEVEL TO RULE THEM ALL For the money Lotus will be asking for the Evija, customers will expect everything as standard. That will include Bluetooth connectivity, Android Auto and Apple Carplay, and an extensive infotainment system. It will also include wireless connectivity and a smartphone app that will allow owners to check on the status of the vehicle in terms of location, battery charge, charging times, and available range.

PRICE & AVAILABILITY: EXPENSIVE & RARE Lotus only plans to build 130 examples of the Evija. However, the first year's allocation limit has been reached, and it won't be street legal in the US. That won't stop people from ordering one to play with on the track or lock away in a collection over here, though. To get one, customers will need to have $322,000 handy for a deposit and around $2.3 million in total to part with when the hypercar is ready for delivery. Lotus has a new manufacturing plant next to a Formula 1 test track that's ready for production. Lotus planned to have the first deliveries of the Evija go out in the summer, which is unlikely as things stand at the time of writing.

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LAGONDA REVEALS THE FUTURE OF THE LUXURY SUV

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Concept gives first glimpse of the first production model from the luxury brand exclusively driven by zero emission powertrain technologies.

Production of Lagonda vehicles set to begin at new St Athan facility in Wales in 2022.

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Aston Martin Lagonda is proud to present the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept, continuing the journey towards a new range of state of the art, luxury vehicles driven by zero emission powertrain technologies.

Lagonda production is planned to start in 2022 at a new state of the art facility in St Athan, Wales - Aston Martin Lagonda’s ‘Home of Electrification’.

Built around near-future technologies such as its advanced Battery Electric drivetrain, the Lagonda AllTerrain Concept is an ultra-stylish, supremely luxurious, fully electric emission-free vehicle that can transport its occupants to remote and spectacular locations. It develops the designs and materials seen in last year’s widely acclaimed Lagonda Vision Concept, tailoring them for the new and challenging environments that an all-terrain vehicle is capable of reaching.

Lagonda will show how true luxury and modern design, far from being diametrically opposed interests, can exist in total harmony and enhance each other’s most desirable characteristics.

Andy Palmer, Aston Martin Lagonda President and Group Chief Executive Officer said: ‘The Lagonda AllTerrain Concept adds a hugely exciting sense of adventure to the unique brand of luxury, emission-free vehicles that Lagonda is planning to produce. This is a car that would be at home whisking someone straight from a glamorous red carpet event to a remote scientific research lab. It shows the bold possibilities for Lagonda and demonstrates how the company will push to expand horizons in every area, whether it be technology, design or scope of travel.’

Lagonda All-Terrain Concept The Lagonda All-Terrain Concept is a near future study that continues the evolution of a design language that could be seen in production Lagonda models as soon as 2022. Where the Lagonda Vision Concept shown at last year’s Geneva motor show was purely focused on road travel, this new vehicle broadens Lagonda’s horizons. It appeals to a pioneering spirit of adventure and such is its futuristic design that you could just as easily imagine it roaming the surface of Mars as a mountain in Scotland.

The sense of wonder continues at the rear of the car. Set into the very wide clamshell rear hatch, is a thin and elegant light strip that cleverly hides the source of its illumination. Light is beamed downwards and then reflected out, so that the actual LEDs are hidden from the viewer. This not only gives a very clean look to the light, but also lends an air of magic to its operation, turning the functional into the fantastic.

The interior of the vehicle develops many of the bold design elements first seen in the Vision Concept, but while that possessed a rear-seat-biased limousine atmosphere, the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept has a more even-handed ambiance spread between all four seats. So, while there is still the option of rotating the two front seats to face the rear two during autonomous operation, there is a greater expectation that the vehicle will be controlled by the driver during the journeys that it will undertake.

Feelings of time and space are also attributes

speakers. However, that’s not to say that everything is hidden. While the technology exists in this day and age to allow the key to be removed altogether, Lagonda believes that it remains an important point of contact between the driver and the vehicle. As such, the key is celebrated and indeed elevated in the interior of the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept.

Aston Martin St Athan: Home of Electrification

associated with luxury and as such the interior of the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept does its utmost to enhance those aspects. The lines and focal colours inside the car draw upon techniques known since the masters of the Renaissance in their ability to draw the eye and utilise perspective. Also, key is the view out, which is expansive in that it draws the eye not only to the front and sides but also upwards. This allows the occupants to look both along streets or valleys and up to the buildings or peaks surrounding them.

Technology is an important but subtle part of the interior. Thanks to clever and considered integration, there isn’t the usual punctuation of vents, grilles and

Although currently at the concept stage, it already has a home. When Lagonda’s first model reaches production, it will be produced at Aston Martin Lagonda’s brand new facility in Wales. The St Athan site, which started life as a series of Ministry of Defence ‘Super Hangars’, is currently being completely transformed into a state-of-the-art luxury manufacturing plant. This will be Aston Martin Lagonda’s second production facility and ultimately it will become the company’s ‘Home of Electrification’.

Over 70 Welsh employees have now joined the already 100-strong St Athan team, having spent the last two-and-a-half years at Aston Martin Lagonda’s Gaydon Headquarters. This core group of experts will train new employees at the St Athan plant.

They’re sure to be busy with the workforce steadily increasing during the first half of 2019, then expanding rapidly to more than 700 by the first quarter of 2020.

Palmer commented: ‘As the St Athan facility nears completion, there is a very real sense this is the start of a bold new era for Aston Martin Lagonda. A second production facility is a critical step in delivering our Second Century Plan. The St Athan facility will initially commence with the production of the Aston Martin DBX but will ultimately be a global centre of excellence for the production of luxury high performance EVs, including Lagonda: the world’s first luxury electric automotive brand.’

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BENTLEY MULLINER BACALAR A DYNAMICALLY-SCULPTED DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE

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Bentley Mulliner has revealed the all-new Bacalar*. The rarest two-door Bentley of the modern era, and the ultimate expression of two-seat, open-air luxury, this definitive Grand Tourer spearheads a return to coachbuilding by Bentley Mulliner – the oldest coachbuilder in the world.

Just 12 examples of this striking, limited edition model are being created, guaranteeing rarity and exclusivity, and offering supreme luxury and breath-taking performance.

Bacalar, the most exclusive two-door Bentley of the modern era, launches a new Bentley Mulliner operation, and forms part of a new strategy for the world’s oldest coachbuilder. With an illustrious coachbuilding history, which can be traced back to the 1500s, Mulliner will, from 2020, offer three different portfolios to customers: Classic, Collections and Coachbuilt.

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The Bacalar draws on design DNA from the beautifully sculpted, award-winning EXP 100 GT, and propels Bentley into a new century of extraordinary, as the most dynamically sculpted model from Bentley’s designers to date. A genuine ‘roofless’ Barchetta, Bacalar is a luxurious, two-seat, open-air performance car, the likes of which has never been seen before.

Sitting on extended haunches, with the rear track 200 mm wider than a Continental GT to provide a more muscular, sporting stance Bacalar features bespoke, 22-inch tri-finish wheels with dramatic depth and contour on the road. Unique front and rear horizontal lights add the distinctive, dynamic character that was first seen on the EXP 100 GT. The exterior look of each model will be completed in collaboration with individual customers, who are able to further personalise their car, choosing from rare paint options, exterior treatments and design themes.

A UNIQUE WRAPAROUND COCKPIT Inside Bacalar’s cabin, Bentley craftspeople

have created a cockpit like no other. The architecture of the Bacalar has allowed Bentley Mulliner designers to create a ‘wraparound’ cockpit design that not only blends the interior and exterior together but also emphasises the two-seater character. The wraparound design flows from a steeply angled centre console into the dashboard, before sweeping into the door panels. These then continue towards a uniquely styled, semi-enclosed luggage compartment behind the seats. These two luggage ‘pods’ envelope the seats creating a true two-seater cabin.

AN ADVANCED DASHBOARD At the heart of Bacalar’s dashboard is an advanced, fully digital, driver-focussed instrument panel and the now famous Bentley Rotating Display. This digital MMI display has been elegantly designed by Bentley with a customer-configurable home screen. For Bacalar, the Rotating Display features rare Riverwood veneer, a material first introduced in the EXP 100 GT concept, which rotates when

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the engine is started to reveal the high-resolution touchscreen.

Three configurable windows are able to display the driver’s preferred functions, such as telephone, media and navigation. The interface is designed to operate like a smartphone, with menus that are structured and simple to follow. The third side of the Bentley Rotating Display presents three, elegant

analogue dials that display outside temperature, a compass and chronometer.

Each car also features a unique clock face with individual one-of-12 badging.

THE CLERKENWELL “The Clerkenwell” specification typifies the spirit of the Brooklands racetrack where early Bentleys competed, and encapsulates a modern, effortless style accentuated by British racing heritage. The name refers to the Central London borough of Clerkenwell, home to a collection of the city’s oldest architecture, as well as some of its finest creative minds.

Focusing on the classic contrast of dark green and browns, Moss Green exterior paint is paired with Cumbrian Green and Golden Oak hides, contrasted with stitching in Saddle thread and the use of Cheltenham Tweed. The veneer is a new concept – Honey Larch – providing a further contrast to the interior. Exterior brightware is in Dark Bronze Glass, carrying the colour theme out of the cabin and linking the interior and exterior palettes.

We

at Business Arena Publishing Group keep an eye on the latest trends in the business media and put our readers' wishes first, as we constantly aim to extend our readership potential and gain greater coverage and circulation.

In keeping with our expansion strategy, we are happy to introduce The Book of Excellence 2020. Widely acclaimed for its prestigious annual awards dedicated business, culture, civil society, and sport personalities, Business Arena Magazine has heard its business partners and readers alike, who have been asking for a new platform that could put under the spotlight all the Business Arena award winners, with their success stories, challenges, expectations and hopes.

We have decided to build the new publication around our dynamic award events, and showcase their winners: Most Admired Business Women

Awards, Financial Leaders' Hall of Fame, Business Arena Awards for Excellence. Our readers deserve to know more about these successful people and organizations, so more than 30 business leaders, entrepreneurs, highly-regarded professionals, companies, and banks will be included in our first edition, with interviews, biographical details and company profiles.

Business Arena is committed to providing the business community with useful insights and tools to manage their operations, and with platforms where business leaders and leading professionals can express their views and ideas.

Overall, this new magazine is designed to include a wide variety of exciting topics and promote business excellence. We plan to publish the magazine annually and jam-pack the pages full of success stories to inspire you.

Our aim is to inspire readers with new ways of thinking; promote greater awareness of issues affecting their business opportunities; and expand our audience to a new generation of business people, entrepreneurs, and professionals. The Book of Excellence will cover the most dynamic business sectors in this country,

including banking, car manufacturing, IT&C, real estate, agribusiness, hospitality, retail, pharmaceuticals and so on. It will have a company profile section, lists of top companies in multiple categories and of course exclusive interviews.

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WHY THE 2020 ZERO SR/F SHOULD BE YOUR FIRST ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE On a series of test rides, the zero-emissions machine impressed us with its 140 ft lbs of torque and city range of 161 miles.

One ride on the 2020 Zero SR/F stood out as the crucible, the moment in our three-week test that would help to determine whether now is the time to own an electric motorcycle. That moment came when I set off on the SR/F for an evening of American Flat Track (AFT) racing.

The national series was visiting Perris Auto Speedway about 50 miles from my home near Palm Springs, Calif. AFT had hosted Robb Report earlier this year at Daytona Beach and imparted the sport’s unique riding style. But would the SR/F have enough battery capacity to make the round trip, or might I spend the night with the coyotes?

Available in Standard ($18,995) and Premium ($20,995) variants that differ mainly in charging rate and capacity, the SR/F represents the highest achievement in Zero Motorcycles’ 13year history. Looking trim and nicely detailed, this streetfighter—which is now arriving in the approximately 100 Zero dealerships nationwide— offers superbike performance with output of 110 hp and 140 ft lbs of torque. The latter measure is phenomenal for a motorcycle and results in pyrotechnic acceleration.

Before going to the racetrack, the debonair SR/F had already established its prowess around town, thanks in part to being fitted with an unsightly but useful top case for errands. And there were repeated 50-mile sport rides over Pioneertown, Pipes Canyon and Old Woman Springs Roads in San Bernardino County. The semi-tucked riding position was ideal for these short blasts and enhanced my confidence in the 484-pound bike’s fine handling and braking.

The SR/F has five ride modes—Eco, Street, Sport, Rain and Custom—and they can be changed on the fly. We chose Eco for urban and

some highway riding and enjoyed adequate throttle response. Strong regenerative deceleration helped to stop the bike at intersections, with just light braking required, and sent current back to the battery to extend range.

As the choice for the rural loop through Pipes Canyon, Sport delivered the grunt but contributed little regeneration; without this equivalent of engine braking, I had to use the binders more heavily than usual and found myself entering a couple of corners too hot. Luckily, they weren’t places where sand had blown onto the road.

Meanwhile, around town, Street mode delivered plenty of rip but also added a bit of regen.

LUXURY & LIFESTYLE - TOP BRAND

MONTEGRAPPA MOON LANDING LIMITED EDITION FOUNTIAN PEN The Montegrappa Moon Landing Limited Edition Fountain Pen was made in celebration of supreme human achievement and landmark mechanical design, Montegrappa’s Moon Landing Limited Edition has been engineered and realized with an astonishing likeness to the modular craft that powered the Apollo missions.

Offering a mix of engineering, design and exhilarating writing pleasure, Moon Landing LE boasts a striking combination of white pearlised resin and polished Sterling Silver trim, with decorative enamelling to evoke the fuselage markings of the original craft.

A semi-detachable barrel allows users to simulate the separation of the second and third stages of the Saturn V rocket, and reveal special viewing windows that expose the pen’s internal ink flux mechanism. Both features are designed to heighten the experience of an object made to appeal to inquisitive, playful minds.

The pocket clip recalls the tower crane of the Cape Kennedy launch pad, while its blindcap features the conical rocket thrusters that supplied the Saturn V with an incredible 160 million horsepower. In its fountain pen variant, an 18k gold nib. Bears an engraving of the official Apollo 11 mission patch.

Moon Landing LE is available in both fountain pen and rollerball modes, and arrives packaged in an elaborate presentation case designed to sit proudly on any table, shelf or sill.

363 Fountain Pens Sterling Silver 50 Fountain Pens Gold 110 Rollerball pens Sterling Silver 3 Rollerball pens Gold

$8,100.00

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MECHANICAL DELIGHT

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A thrilling mix of design, detailing and mechanical delight combine in an object of rare writing pleasure.

Turn its rocket-thruster blindcap clockwise to simulate the Saturn V’s second and third stage separation.

Reverse direction to watch the fountain pen’s piston-fill mechanism in action through a special 360º viewing window. Presented in a special lunar landing site diorama, the ultimate tribute to the 20thcentury’s crowning technological achievement can be yours to hold and behold.

THE WORLD’S FASTEST SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT IS ALSO FULLY CARBON NEUTRAL Boom Supersonic announced that its XB-1 test program will use sustainable aviation fuels and carbon offsetting to achieve carbon neutrality.

Following the lead of the business-jet industry, Denver-based aviation company Boom Supersonic announced yesterday that the test-flight program of its new XB-1 supersonic airliner will be fully carbon neutral by using sustainable aviation fuels and carbon offsetting.

As the first commercial airplane builder committing to a carbon-neutral test program, Boom also reports taking sustainability into account when making each major decision within the organization.

Boom built the XB-1 supersonic aircraft as a demo to prove the design’s key technologies are safe, efficient and sustainable while traveling at supersonic speeds. The company’s commitment to the carbon-neutral cause covers all ground and flight testing performed over the lifetime of the XB-1 program.

The company is considering the environmental impact each step of the way— through the aircraft’s design, testing and flying stages. Last summer, Boom announced its partnership with Prometheus Fuels, which manufactures sustainable alternative fuels, to supply carbon-neutral jet fuel during the XB-1 test program. Prometheus removes CO2 from the air and uses clean electricity to turn it into jet fuel. Solar and wind provide the power used in this transformation process, so there are no net carbon emissions from using the fuel.

Not leaving anything to chance, Boom did a series of ground tests in January 2019 in which the company ran the XB-1 engines using

sustainable aviation fuels. The tests, which were propelled by a blend of more than 80 percent sustainable fuel, gave Boom the assurance needed to safely use sustainable aviation fuels in the XB-1’s future ground and test flights.

Last fall, Boom designated an environmental and sustainability team, appointing Raymond Russell as the head of sustainability. The former Google Policy Fellow has been key in Boom’s environmental policy and advocacy since 2017.

He also represents the company at technical working groups of the International Civil Aviation Organization Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (ICAO/CAEP), supporting evaluations of potential global environmental regulations for aviation. Russell and team manage Boom’s sustainability partnerships and initiatives, such as sustainability in aircraft design, sustainable aviation fuels, flight routing and carbon offsetting. “As a new entrant in aerospace, Boom is making sustainability a core tenet of our aircraft development program,” said Russell. “Thanks to today’s technology, supersonic travel is economically viable, and we are proud to ensure that it’s environmentally friendly as well.”

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Boom XB-1 supersonic jet development goes carbon neutral

BUSINESS ARENA

m a g a z i n e

AWARDS

EXCELLENCE for2020

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in partnership with

With its strong and diverse tradition in creating new platforms for the business community to share their views and ideas, and in recognizing business success and achievements, spanning over 19 years, Business Arena has launched a new project designed to expand the scope of its annual award ceremonies, with the addition of a new gala to its events calendar.

The Awards for Excellence is already becoming a highlight in the business events calendar. Guests gather to celebrate excellence in business, sports, culture, and community, enjoying the company of friends and industry colleagues.

Innovation, resourcefulness, perseverance and a culture of responsible risk-taking have helped many overcome major challenges. Thus, the new awards gala brings recognition to individuals and organizations in business, culture, sport and civil society that recorded outstanding results and achievements.

FIND MORE DETAILS ABOUT LAST YEAR’S CATEGORIES AND WINNERS ON OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.BUSINESS-ARENA.RO.

For more information please contact Cosmin Stangaciu at cosmin.stangaciu@business-arena.ro or phone 0755.274.125