No. 19, May 30 - June 5

LANDMARK: A towering Bucharest institution for four decades now, Business Review marks the InterContinental’s fortieth birthday with a pictorial trip down memory lane, taking in the story and traditions of this iconic hotel »page 16-17

ROMANIA’S PREMIERE BUSINESS WEEKLY

May 30 - June 5, 2011 / VOLUME 16, NUMBER 19

LINKS

LOAN RANGER Dominic Bruynseels, CEO of BCR, talks about his bank’s plans to boost lending on the Romanian market after a difficult 2010 »page 8

A taxing conundrum Two new measures are intended to make paying taxes easier for citizens » page 10-11 PROPERTY

Real life Adama’s VP Asher Lax takes the pulse of the residential market » page 12 TALENT

Taste for business Dinu Pistalu’s local eatery Babadochia is carving out a slice of the market » page 15 PLUS Roberto’s reloaded – but will the Hilton’s Italian sate our critic? » page 18 PLUS The BR Club masters the Art of investing » page 19

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

NEWS 3

NEWS in brief

3Q Karim Kheirat

WEEK in numbers Courtesy of Icap

1,000 streets and bicycle routes in Bucharest will undergo repair works starting June 1

Country manager, ICAP Romania What is the nature of ICAP’s partnership with Dun & Bradstreet and how will it impact the business in Romania?

Under a long-term agreement, ICAP will become the exclusive provider of Dun & Bradstreet’s (D&B) services in Romania, Greece and Bulgaria, supplying, amongst other services, information on companies from 220 countries. Likewise, D&B will distribute information on Romanian, Greek and Bulgarian firms, supplied by ICAP. The D&B credit reports will also include the ICAP Rating, which is recognized by the European Central Bank.

The effects will be very positive for ICAP. We developed the company’s portfolio successfully with banks and leasing companies and last year local companies. With this agreement we will serve through D&B the international companies in Romania using D&B information ordered by their HQ. What ICAP service makes the highest contribution to the company’s local turnover?

ICAP Group has four business lines: credit risk services which include debt collection; management consulting; people solutions (executive search, training, leasing of employees); and marketing solutions. Today, the highest contribution to the group’s turnover in Romania comes from debt collection, with strong development in the outsourcing of debt collection in B-to-B. The fastest growing activity is business information. Our main success is the credit risk assessment of companies. When we launched our activity on the Romanian market, there was initially confusion due to easy access to financial data. Most firms thought that they were able to process these data using a philosophy of credit risk management. The crisis demonstrated the limits of this approach. In the past most CFOs or sales managers told us that they knew their clients very well or that they were not risky. This is no longer the case.

The turnover of ICAP Group in Romania (ICAP Romania and Cycle European) was EUR 3.5 million in 2010, with 75 percent for Cycle. We plan to have a EUR 4.5 million turnover in 2011.

Do you plan on adding new services or business lines for the local market?

Our strategy is to implement the group’s services in each country. We recently developed two new services locally: Google AdWords and Findbiz. ICAP Group is an authorized Google reseller. In Greece, last year we had sales of more than EUR 1.5 million through Google AdWords.

3,000 Transit Connects were manufactured by Ford in its Craiova plant in the first four months of this year

IMAGE of the week Wild horses protesters nag government into Letea dismount Local and international media and NGO uproar over the fate of 49 abandoned horses in Romania’s Letea forest near the Danube Delta spurred the bridled government into action as most of the horses were rescued from the slaughter house and returned to the wilderness. The initial plan was to sell the animals to an Italian firm for meat. But the harnessing of media power and a flashmob demonstration outside government HQ saved most of them.

RETAIL Ruby Food brings Second Cup cafe to Romania Ruby Food, the owner of the Ruby Tuesday franchise for Romania, has opened its first Second Cup coffee shop in Romania.

Located on Bucharest’s Decebal Boulevard, the venue is close to the Ruby Tuesday restaurant.

Company representatives said the investment in a location such as this can reach up to USD 250,000. Ruby Food plans to open five coffee shops in Romania by 2014 depending on the country’s economic situation.

PROPERTY PointPark Properties opens new Romanian office PointPark Properties (P3), the developer and administrator of logistic parks, has officially opened its Romanian office in Bucharest. Representatives said the new office will allow the company to provide support for the build-to-suit projects it has in the pipeline, especially the PointPark Cluj-Turda project, to expand its service range and focus on increasing its local client base.

P3 is currently administering assets in 11 European countries and has its own offices in Prague, Paris, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, London, Bratislava, and Warsaw, making Bucharest the eighth one.

Ambient ups turnover to EUR 105 million in 2010 Ambient reported a EUR 105 million turnover for 2010, EUR 2 million more than in 2010, the Romanian DIY retailer has announced. According to company representatives, the results are the outcome of the business restructuring process started in 2009.

Ambient is currently made up of two divisions targeting the firm’s main types of clients: retail and distribution. The retail division comprises 12 commercial centers, while the distribution one covers 11 work points and construction materials warehouses. The company, which is entirely Romanian owned, was established in 1993 and opened its first DIY store in 2002 in Sibiu.

ModaTim lays foundation of fourth building in CBDC ModaTim Investment, the developer of the City Business Center project, has started construction works for the fourth building. The new A class office block will be built in downtown Timisoara, close to Square 700, next to the three functional buildings in the project.

The City Business Development Center (CBDC) accessed non-refundable EU financing of RON 29.3 million (approximately EUR 6.9 million), the largest sum obtained so far by a private project in the western region. The building is expected to be delivered in June 2012, and will have a 9,500-sqm rentable area for office and service space. “Out of the 25 companies

3,000 jobs will be cut by CFR Marfa (the commodities railways operator) starting July in a restructuring move

that the CBDC will host, we estimate that 75 percent of them will be local SMEs in the IT industry, but also from other innovative areas,” said Ovidiu Sandor, CEO of ModaTim Investment.

TELECOM Total number of mobile users reaches 24.6 million Despite the difficult economic conditions in the second half of 2010, mobile telephony, internet and television services posted growth during the period. Mobile broadband internet connections increased by 21 percent to 4 million, of which 1 million were connections via modems/cards/USB, according to Eduard Lovin, executive manager for regulations in ANCOM (the National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications).The number of fixed internet connections reached 3 million, up 2 percent. The number of mobile users rose by 1 percent to 24.6 million users. Total voice traffic in the mobile networks continued to grow to 26.5 billion minutes, up 4 percent. However, this is three times less than the growth posted in the first half of 2010.

The average monthly voice traffic per active SIM card reached 3 hours and 1 minute, while the average monthly number of sent SMS stayed steady at 27. At the same time, the typical duration of a call in the mobile networks is 2 minutes and 12 seconds.

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

4 NEWS FOOD & BEVERAGE

Danone Romania reports 10 percent turnover increase for 2010

Courtesy of Danone

Stephane Batoux, general director of Danone Romania & the Adriatic Region

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anone Romania saw its sales go up 10 percent last year against 2009, to RON 476 million (approximately EUR 113 million). The company’s net profit also rose in 2010, said Stephane Batoux, general director of Danone Romania and the Adriatic Region, without mentioning the actual figures.

The 0.6 economic growth announced by the National Institute of Statistics for the first quarter of 2011 has not had any impact on consumption so far, said Batoux, adding that the first results could appear in the last quarter of the year. He went on to argue that reducing VAT should, in his opinion, be the first measure taken in order to boost consumption.

“It is the first solution that comes to mind.

Romania is among the EU member countries with the highest rates of VAT. I believe that even a decrease of one percentage point would help,” said the country manager.

Talking about last year’s turnover, Batoux said that innovation and promotions were the main growth drivers and that this strategy would continue throughout 2011. “We kept prices at the

same level in 2010 so the increase came from higher sales volumes,” added Bogdan Ioachim, communication director at Danone Romania.

In 2010, the French firm invested RON 17 million locally (approximately EUR 4 million), focusing on the development of industrial capacity, technology, logistics and distribution. Some of the money was invested into the Reaching West program, a program through which Danone helps partner farms increase their milk collection and quality. A similar investment budget is planed for this year when Danone intends to increase the production capacity of its local factory near Bucharest. “We have seen a couple of export opportunities but we plan to increase production mainly because the local market is growing,” said Batoux. In 2010 Danone upped its market share on the fresh dairy market to 58 percent.

In 2010 the local fresh dairy market went up by 3 percent but consumption remains relatively low, especially when it comes to yogurt, said Danone officials.

Romanians ate on average 3.46 kg of yogurt in 2010, whereas in neighboring Bulgaria the average was 11.14 kg per capita. Batoux says that yogurt consumption is so low in Romania that the crisis was hardly noticeable. He estimates that in the following five to ten years consumption could double.

“In Bulgaria, for example, eating yogurt is in the national DNA. In Romania it will take time to boost consumption,” Batoux commented.

The Danone factory in Bucharest produces about 1.3 million products every day and covers 90 percent of the volumes sold in Romania. Three percent of production goes to export, mainly to countries from the Adriatic region, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova.

Danone has 740 employees in Romania and sells 70 types of product. ∫ Simona Bazavan

AVIATION

EC opens investigation into state aid in Romanian air transport sector

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he European Commission has opened two in-depth investigations under EU State aid rules into a Romanian support scheme for investments in regional airports that aim to verify whether rebates and discounts granted by the Timisoara airport to some airlines distort competition. The Commission is particularly investigating the agreements concluded between the Timisoara airport and low-cost carrier Wizz Air, which could have given the latter an unfair economic advantage over its competitors.

The EC is examining whether the annual subsidies granted to the Timisoara airport only serve to reduce the operator’s current expenditures. “In the absence of a general economic interest purpose, this would be incompatible with EU rules as it would provide an unfair advantage to the beneficiary with regard to its com-

petitors, who have to operate without aid,” said EC officials.

At issue are the contractual relations between Timisoara airport and Wizz Air, namely a marketing agreement signed in 2008 and the non-payment of airport charges amounting to EUR 2.6 million as well as additional rebates of 72 to 85 percent of all airport charges for large aircraft (above 70 tons maximum take-off weight). The EC’s concern is that such preferential treatment may have the effect of forcing the only competitor of Wizz Air on some routes out of the market.

The overall investigation will probe whether the public financing given to regional airports meets “a clearly defined objective of general interest, given the apparent oversupply of airport services in Romania,” an announcement from the commission indicated. ∫

6 NEWS

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

TOBACCO

Cigarette smuggling falls to 15 percent, says Philip Morris

Photo: Laurentiu Obae

Making efforts to stub out smuggling: Sergey Slipcenko, new MD of PMI

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he local branch of cigarette producer Phillip Morris International has a new managing director, Sergey Slipcenko, who took the helm of the company this January. Speaking at a press conference last week, he said that cigarette smuggling in Romania has fallen to 14.7 percent from the staggering 36 percent registered last year. The MD added that the company’s sales have therefore increased and that his main mission is to take the firm to the top position on the local market.

Slipcenko has held various management positions in marketing and sales, including in the Ukraine. There he witnessed the rise of the company from third to first place. His long-term goal is to repeat that feat in Romania and, he added, he will stay here “for as long as it takes” to do so.

Slipcenko added that PMI does not intend to extend its product portfolio in Romania for the moment, but to focus on its existing brands. He also spoke about a change in the company’s distribution system, which now uses an external logistics service and functions with a track and trace system, which allows the tracking of any products that are diverted for sale in other markets than the designated one.

The factory in Otopeni, which the MD said ranked third in the world in terms of the quality of products manufactured there, was also discussed at the conference. Currently, 80 percent of its output is exported, with over 90 percent of these exports going to Italy. Since 1997, EUR 120 million has been invested in the development of this factory, which faced an uncertain future in 2010 and was temporarily closed on account of the smuggling issues.

The factory also produced for Japan

this year, for an estimated two months and a quantity of 250-350 million cigarettes. No Romanian tobacco is used at the plant, since the local production is of poor quality.

Issues such as the EU’s project to ban cigarette branding or oblige manufacturer to use the same packaging were discussed by corporate affairs director, Andrei Vasilescu. He argued that such a measure would lead to bogus products and would infringe the right to intellectual property.

Vasilescu applauded the formation of an inter-ministerial council dedicated specifically to issues connected with the cigarette market, saying this was necessary, given the restrictive legislation and smuggling situation. In the EU, contraband products make up around 10 percent of the market and this is the target set for the local market as well, Vasilescu added. The financial results registered in 2010 were also disclosed In 2010, Philip Morris Trading registered in Romania a turnover of over RON 2 billion, a net profit of just under RON 30 million and total revenues of more than RON 2 billion. Phillip Morris Romania recorded a turnover of over RON 139 million, a net profit of more than RON 23 million and total revenues of above RON 147 million.

In Romania, the company currently holds only a quarter of the total market and ranks second after its main competitor, British American Tobacco. Japan Tobacco International (JTI) is third. The best sold PMI brand both locally and internationally is Marlboro. PMI has an estimated 800 permanent employees locally and, Slipcenko stated, no new recruitment is being considered for the moment. ∫ Corina Dumitrescu

NEWS 7

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

WINES

MEDIA

Lacerta Winery uncorks EUR 8 mln vine estate in Dealu Mare

Value of local digital market reached EUR 38 mln in 2010, Hyperactive finds

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Romania for the past 11 years, working for the Austrian Embassy to Bucharest and insurer Uniqa, says he is confident that new investors will soon follow him into the region.

Lacerta Winery entered the local wine field in February by launching nine varieties of premium dry wine. The local scene is currently the company’s priority. As for the local market for premium wines, Friedl thinks that there is plenty of room for growth.

“Look in various restaurants in Bucharest. People want to buy quality Romanian wine but it is either not available or it is poorly promoted so they end up buying Chilean or French wines,” he said.

In 2010 the local wine market ranged between 5 and 30 percent on various segments, according to some market reports, with sales falling to about EUR 400 million. Despite this decrease, investors are confident that things will turn around and that there is high potential, especially for exports.

In addition to foreign investors, in the past years this has led some local wine aficionados to turn their passion into a business. Central bank governor Mugur Isarescu, former justice minister Valeriu Stoica, businessmen Jean Valvis, Sebastian Ghita and Mihai Miron are just a few such. ∫ Simona Bazavan

Photo: Laurentiu Obae

remium wine producer Lacerta Winery has officially opened its vine estate in Fintesti, in the Dealu Mare region, following a total investment of approximately EUR 8 million. The business was set up in 2003 and is owned by four foreign investors, three Austrian and one German.

The investment covers the acquisition of 82 ha of vineyard and its replanting, the building of a 2,000-sqm complex which includes modern production facilities and a wine cellar as well as a shop and a wine tasting unit. Lacerta Winery has also refurbished the Dorobantu Manor House which was designed by Romanian architect Ion Mincu and built in 1901 on the first 11 ha plot the investors bought.

Approximately 25 percent of the money invested in the business comes from EU funds and the Romanian authorities, Walter Friedl, representative of the owners, told BR on a previous occasion.

This year the company plans to make over EUR 1 million from attracting tourists to the estate. “With this investment we also plan to boost local tourism through partnerships with local pensions and hotels to offer accommodation for our visitors (…). Presently we have reservations from groups of foreign tourists and businesspeople who come to Romania,” said Friedl.

The businessman, who has been in

Social networks now shape the web

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ocal digital agency Hyperactive, part of Lowe group, has launched its Digital Factbook, which contains an analysis of the local digital market. The total value of the 2010 market is estimated to have reached EUR 38 million, divided between display media (47 percent), creative services (25 percent), performance media (20 percent) and mobile (8 percent).

Three trends seem to be continuously changing the communication landscape, the first of which is social media. In Romania, Facebook has reached critical mass, reports the Digital Factbook, reaching 42.5 percent of the online population, compared to 10 percent in 2008. Mean-

while, 11 percent of internet surfers are using the micro-blogging platform Twitter, compared to practically zero percent in 2008. Moreover, it appears that conversion rates from Facebook fan-pages are up to five times higher than from other sources of traffic.

A second trend noted in the report is that users in Romania are ready for realtime. Another is so-called “crowdsourcing”, which translates into the 18 million entries registered by Wikipedia in Romania, including 160,000 Romanian entries and 3.6 million English submissions.

Tpu.ro, a local site on which registered users ask questions and others provide answers, has built up a staggering 2 million unique visitors monthly, with 780,000 questions asked by users and 3,000 new answers provided in an average day.The online environment is no longer the exclusive domain of the young, but is growing among users aged 55-64, the statistics show.

Despite the crisis, which eroded volume of the media market by 36 percent in 2009 and another 10 percent in 2010, online continues to gain share and momentum, being the only medium to grow in an overall declining communication market. The digital market is estimated

by Hyperactive to reach somewhere between EUR 47.5 and 55 million in 2011. ∫ Corina Dumitrescu

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

8 INTERVIEW

CV Dominic Bruynseels Dominic Bruynseels built his banking career by serving the prestigious Barclays Bank for 27 years, where he started as assistant manager in a Barclay’s branch in the City of London. In 1989 he joined the large corporate side. Subsequently, his experience was diversified by a new role in operational business and systems planning. In 1999 Bruynseels became CEO of Barclays Africa and the Middle East, responsible for 12 operations across the region. Since 2008, the banker has been CEO of BCR Romania.

During his tenure, BCR has strengthened its leading position on the local banking market. Bruynseels holds a degree in Medieval History from Durham University and an MBA from Henley. the guarantees issue: JEREMIE program).

There is significant potential in industry, energy, IT and agriculture. We finance all good businesses viable on the longer term, but the economy needs to continue restructuring. Companies need to focus on their core business, divest and concentrate resources to be competitive.

Courtesy of BCR

BCR open for business Dominic Bruynseels, CEO of BCR, tells Business Review about the perspectives of the local banking system and emphasizes the main elements of BCR’s strategy, one of which is increasing lending to companies in 2011 by financing productive sectors.

∫ ANDA SEBESI How would you describe the Romanian banking market at the moment? Has the local banking system passed through the current economic crisis?

All banks have a responsibility to try to improve their customers’ trust in them.

And there is no better way that people’s trust in an organization is shown than the fact that more people do more business with you. Customers and banks need to understand each other and their financial life together better. We need to know our customers better, to sell and serve them better, to offer them simple and accessible products meeting their needs and financial situation, more suitable savings options and, eventually, affordable financing solutions. I think we need a new business model for the country. We need to be a much less of a consumption driven economy and we need to produce things.

How do you see the current lending situation in Romania? Are there any signs of recovery for the lending process?

Lending will resume gradually as economy recovers. We should not expect the credit mania of before the crisis, though.

People have adjusted their spending behavior and values. Companies need to restructure and focus on core competencies. The economy needs to rebuild itself on a more solid base. We would lend to any good business presenting a good business plan. We see a lot of opportunities in industry, the petro-chemical industry, agriculture, but we also see an acute need for Romanian businesses to restructure, divest non-core assets and focus on core activities.

We’ll grant special focus to supporting the economic recovery through funding municipalities and public sector investment projects, co-financing EU projects, making smart use of international financing facilities for financing SMEs (in-

dustry, tourism, services, and agriculture).

Overall, our target growth for this year will be less than five percent. That’s because we do not see demand returning in the first half of the year, but in the second part of it. But this is reliant on the government making some significant steps in its infrastructure program. Lots of tenders have been issued for the first part of the year – they need to be followed through and the projects need to start. It remains to be seen whether the government will be able to execute them.

What is the most dynamic segment of lending, to individuals or companies?

We increased our market share in corporate lending in 2010. We plan to increase lending to companies in 2011 by financing productive sectors. We prioritize co-financing EU projects, international financing programs, alternative schemes to facilitate access to financing (such as

How was 2010 for BCR in terms of financial performance?

We have the largest exposure to the real economy and we feel most the impact of the economic recession. 2010 was a very difficult year for our customers and therefore for BCR. As expected, the results were heavily impacted by the continuing difficult market conditions in Romania: the economy was subject to a significant austerity program and VAT rise – the effects of which are still being felt. We continue to provide support for our customers, to improve the way we serve them and operate our business.

What has been interesting through the crisis is that our market share has been growing in some areas like the First House program and the corporate segment. We command the largest retail client base in Romania. Our goal is to help them to be in control of their financial lives.

What is your strategy for 2011?

The market is small at the moment, but it is growing. So, the areas we are focusing on are: becoming the leading savings bank in the country, the leading corporate and investment bank in the country, the leading mortgage bank and a leader in the SME market as well. The area we’re focusing on on the corporate side would be more in the larger corporate area.

We increased our market share in 2010 and we believe we’ll lend more to customers in 2011. We support the economic recovery but the economy and banking market need to rebuild on solid ground. We are looking at schemes and policies to facilitate access to credit in a meaningful manner. We’re staying open for business, there are still significant opportunities and we are looking with great interest at infrastructure projects, co-financing EU funded projects, energy efficiency schemes, guarantee schemes for facilitating SME access to loans. In addition, we operate through 667 branches and our strategy remains to optimize the results from operating the current network.

10 LINKS

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

State takes first steps towards streamlining tax payment Since the beginning of the year, the state – in the form of its ministries and local public administrations – has announced a couple of measures to streamline the tax payment process and free citizens of the burden of queuing to pay their taxes. BR reviews these recent developments. ∫ OTILIA HARAGA At the end of March, the Ministry of Communications announced the launch of Ghiseul.ro, the National System of Electronic Tax Payment via bank card (SNEP).

“The system is very easy for any local administration to implement,” said the minister of communications, Valerian Vreme, at the time. “We conceived and developed Ghiseul.ro so that by next year all Romanian citizens can access its services. For this, city halls need just to enroll in the system of their own free will or at the request of the citizens they represent,” added the minister.

However, the launch of the website did not go without a hitch. Shortly after it went live, bloggers and media reported that the system leaked sensitive taxpayer data. Information such as names, personal user codes and sums paid were available to other taxpayers who were able to see the user’s payment receipt.

The ministry later responded to the complaints and fixed the situation.

Government Decision 1235, which approved the SNEP, states that public institutions that collect taxes must register in the system according to a certain schedule, Andreea Stoleru, spokesperson for the Ministry of Communications, told BR. The first stage is that all counties and cities with a population higher than 150,000 inhabitants must enroll in the system within seven months of the government decision coming into force.

In the second stage, municipalities and cities with a population of up to 150,000 inhabitants must enroll within five months of the end of the first stage, but no later than a year from the original decision becoming effective.

The third stage is the registration of the localities and public institutions that did not sign up in the previous two stages.

Enrollment should be done within six months of the end of the second stage but no later than 18 months after the decision came into force.

The Ministry of Communications has the job of making sure the timeline is respected.

“Following our discussions with various mayors around the country, their interest in using SNEP- Ghiseul.ro in the cities they administer has been confirmed and they assured us that they will enroll within the deadline. The inhabitants of these cities will be able to pay their taxes in comfort and no longer have to endure the stress of wasting time in interminable queues or dealing with the inherent problems of the system

in Sighisoara had to go to both places, which are a long way apart, to pay these taxes,” said Adrian Apolzan, president of APERO. Ghiseul.ro is part of the eRomania project, an overall portal aimed at modernizing the state and improving relations between it and its citizens. The value of the eRomania project is EUR 500 million to be spent by 2013.

Just this month, the System of Intelligent Info-Kiosks for unattended POS (point-of-sale) tax payment by card entered a new development stage. The project was initiated in 2009 by the sector 6 Public Service for Local Public Finances (SPFPL), after being developed in partnership with Piraeus Bank Romania, which implemented the card payment technology, and Printec Group Romania, which supplied the technical solution.

The second development stage of the project means that people living in Bucharest’s sector 6 will be able to pay their traffic fines at machines from now on. There is a 50 percent reduction if the fine is paid within 48 hours.

The program is based on technology that is widespread in the western part of the European Union, called the Technology of Unattended Payments. With a bank card or cash, it involves a specialized terminal via which the user interacts directly with the necessary information in a self-service regime.

The project is currently unique in Romania. The payment procedure requires the authentication of the user whose ID card is scanned. Payment is made under the various categories such as taxes or fines. For this, the system inter-connects with the tax payment application used by SPFPL sector 6.

The project started with eight POS devices located in key commercial areas in sector 6, AFI Palace Cotroceni, Plaza Romania, Cora Militari, Metro, Auchan MilEasy does it: the new system is intended to relieve citizens of tiresome queuing itari, Selgros Drumul Taberei and Crangasi commercial center. Another four POS devices were installed in areas with inrolling in the program: Arad, Baia Mare, tense traffic. they have been used to. Equally, city The total value of the project since it Brasov and Zalau. halls will collect the taxes on time and get “Between March 30 and now, a total of was put into place in 2009 is EUR 150,000, a financial update in real time,” said the 814 payments were made using this sys- which was paid by the sector 6 City Hall. minister of communications.

If a public institutions that should entem. The website Ghiseul.ro was ac- The first stage of the project cost EUR roll in the second stage wishes to sign up cessed by more than 40,000 unique 100,000, after which an additional EUR earlier, it can do so by accelerating the enusers. We estimate that Ghiseul.ro will 50,000 was required when the other rollment process. The early adopters are soon cover more than 1 million Romani- four devices were put into place.

Since the system was installed in 2009, inhabitants of Bucharest sectors 2 and 6, ans,” added Stoleru. as well as people living in the city of TarThe system was provided to the Ro- there have been more than 6,500 paygu Mures. manian state free of charge by the Asso- ments reaching more than EUR 125,000, “The public institutions in these places ciation of Electronic Payments in Roma- which represents approximately 20 perwere chosen because they fulfilled ennia (APERO). “Let us not forget that cent of the total sums collected from rollment criteria and submitted the first many Romanians who live abroad had to card payments. Some 15,500 people have enrollment requests,” said Stoleru. One come to Romania to pay their taxes. And used the system. week ago it was announced that several a person who owned an apartment in other cities were in the process of enBucharest but also their childhood home otilia.haraga@business-review.ro

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

LINKS 11

NUCLEAR

Nuclear physics center in Magurele moves step nearer

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COURTESY OF KPMG

total of 28 companies, including 11 Romanian ones, have so far expressed interest in the Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) project, which will mark a premiere in physics: the intersection of a high-power laser beam and a brilliant high-energy gamma beam.

ELI-NP is one of the three pillars of ELI, or Extreme Light Infrastructure. It will be built near Bucharest, at the premises of the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (HHNIPNE). The other two pillars will be built in the Czech Republic (the ELI Beamlines Facility) and Hungary (the Attosecond facility).

Interested companies include Thales, Quantel, Cristal Laser, Continuum, Amplitude, IBM, Gerb, XIA, Anchor and DILO, according to Nicolae Victor Zamfir, GM of the HH-NIPNE. The International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nicolae Victor Zamfir, HHNIPNE GM Japan Atomic Energy Agency are also interested in some nuclear applications, he said.

Romania was chosen to host ELI-NP In December 2010, the Romanian because of the know-how available here. government made ELI-NP a priority proj- “There is expertise in Magurele both in the ect for Romania. domain of lasers and nuclear physics.

“This infrastructure we hope will not After Germany, France and Great Britain, only stop the brain drain but will rethe best expertise in nuclear physics can verse it. I’m waiting for the moment be found in Romania. when the German authorities complain You cannot build something in a place that too many Germans are leaving for where you don’t have expertise,” Zamfir Romania,” joked Zamfir during a confertold BR. The project is expected to make Roence organized by KPMG on the subject.

mania an important scientific hub for talent and know-how. It should also bring international visibility, and create 214 new high-qualified jobs in research and tech support.

The center will be based in Magurele, near Bucharest. “Why the Bucharest-Ilfov region? If a research infrastructure is built in the middle of nowhere, no scientists will want to go there. You also need infrastructure and a social life. A capital offers this kind of thing,” said Zamfir.

The project’s prospects look good, said the GM. “There is a chance that the Romanian government will not approve the project and also that our project is not good enough. However, the chances are close to nil because we have already sent the draft project for a preliminary evaluation in January-March. It was scrutinized and all the results were extraordinarily positive.” This was carried out by JASPERS (Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions).

The total cost of the ELI-NP project in Romania will be EUR 280 million, excluding VAT. Of this sum, the state has to cover 17 percent from its budget. “The project in Romania is the most important of the three because it is the most complex and has the highest value,” said Zamfir.

The EUR 280 million will be divided as follows: buildings EUR 65 million, lasers EUR 80 million, gamma beam EUR

60 million, equipment EUR 30 million, contingences EUR 15 million and other expenses about EUR 30 million.

“We are limited by two factors: one is that structural funds at this stage should be spent by 2015. Also, what this project requires in terms of tools – the laser and the gamma beam – have to be conceived, you cannot buy them from anywhere.

This means R&D. The time that physicists believe is necessary to develop these instruments is at least three and a half years,” said Zamfir.

However, there will also be operational costs to cover.

“This infrastructure needs to be maintained. We estimated the necessary power at 5 MW, for instance. This costs a great deal. The feasibility study stipulates a green source of energy with 100 heat pumps around so that the energy is provided via heat exchange. This would be the first time in Europe when you can do this kind of thing at industrial level,” Zamfir told BR. The high costs will be covered by national and European funds. “This started and will remain a European project and the European Commission needs to get involved in it. One third would be covered from the state budget, a third from Brussels and one third from private projects where companies would need to carry out certain experiments and pay for them,” he added. ∫ Otilia Haraga

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

12 PROPERTY

Adama hopes residential market is on eve of new dawn but the banks too. I have worked in banking, back abroad, and I can tell you it is not normal to buy a plot of land today for EUR 1 million only to sell it three months later for EUR 8 million. Just recently I met someone interested in selling a plot of land and I feel that sellers are once again asking unreasonable prices.

EUR 3 million for 1,100 sqm in Titan is not justified. This is not Champs Elysees.

Most people have learned from the crisis but there are still some living under an illusion.

After a couple of tough years the local residential real estate market could see a long awaited pick-up in 2011, local developers hope. Asher Lax, marketing & sales VP at Adama, talked to Business Review about the company’s results so far and future plans for the Romanian market.

∫ SIMONA BAZAVAN

What can you tell us about Adama’s results in Bucharest and elsewhere?

We’ve sold roughly 1,000 flats countrywide. In Bucharest we have sold 700 and we have 150 more. Prices start at EUR 55,000 for a studio but the highest demand is for two- and three-room apartments. Outside Bucharest it’s a completely different market. People earn less, but even here we can see a pick up.

In Bucharest Adama has a project that targets high-end customers. Has this market segment evolved differently?

The Evocasa Selecta project is located on Ferdinand Boulevard and it has 77 apartments out of which we have sold 65 percent so far. Prices have decreased less for this sort of apartment but then again we are talking about completely different customers who come and simply buy, no banks, no First Home. Prices start at EUR 90,000, VAT included, and go up to EUR 300,000 and they are still relatively low

Photo: Laurentiu Obae

Would you say now is a good moment to invest in buying a new apartment?

Yes, I believe it is. The market is showing signs of a pick-up. People’s confidence is returning, they are starting to buy and those who are buying are paying cash as the First Home (Prima Casa) program is not functional presently. Nevertheless the banks seem more willing to grant mortgages, too. This is also a pre-election year and this usually means more money in the market.

I don’t think that prices will further decrease, at least not for projects which have a good location like the ones Adama has in Titan and downtown. Not only do I not think that prices will go down, but I expect a gradual increase towards the end of 2011. The proper price of an apartment located in Titan, let’s say, is EUR 1,100 per sqm, whereas presently it is under this threshold at about EUR 900EUR 1,000. But I expect prices to reach that level in a year.

if you consider the location and the furnishings. This is also a very good investment opportunity. In three years’ time I’m convinced that prices will double.

By that time prices will be going up everywhere especially downtown where there aren’t many new apartments and most have large areas – a mistake some developers made. Since the beginning of the year we have sold eight apartments at Evocasa Selecta which is very good.

What matters most to potential buyers?

First of all I would say that the developer’s credibility. Adama has managed to build a strong and positive brand in the past few years. Furbishing and location come next. Easy access to public transportation, schools and supermarkets will always add more value to an apartment.

CV Asher Lax Before joining Adama, Asher Lax worked for 19 years – of which 11 were spent as manager - for United Mizrahi Bank in Israel. While in Romania, he was general manager for the West Park and Casablanca projects in Bucharest.

How much has the government’s First Home program helped sales?

There has been a lot of talk about the First Home program but since its beginning out of all the transactions made so far, less than 2 percent were closed through the First Home scheme. Out of all the apartments we have sold in Bucharest less than 10 percent were bought through this program. I’m not saying that it didn’t help.

The program had a good psychological effect but at the end of the day it wasn’t First Home that mattered the most.

What would you say were the biggest mistakes made by local developers in the past couple of years?

There were two main mistakes. The first would be the chosen locations, followed by the surface of the apartments. Whoever built blocks on the outskirts of town or two-bedroom apartments that reach 120 sqm or three-room ones that have 200 sqm, simply won’t sell them. It was an illusion back in 2007 that one could sell anything.

Has the local real estate market grown more mature over the last few years?

People have learned lessons and they are more cautious. Before the crisis the market was an illusion and those who took out credits are not the only ones to blame

What are Adama’s plans for this year and how do you see the market evolving in 2011?

There aren’t many players left on the market. At Adama we plan to start building two more blocks on the grounds of the already existing Evocasa Optima and Edenia Titan. Construction will start this summer and will probably be finished in the spring of 2013. We are presently selling very well in Evocasa Armonia and we could also start the third block in there.

I believe it is a very good moment to build and it doesn’t have to do with construction costs – which are at a normal level – but in two years’ time there will be no other new apartments in Bucharest.

Outside Bucharest we don’t have expansion plans at the moment. We are waiting to see how the market evolves.

Are you interested in buying more land locally?

We are not buying but we are open to joint ventures with land owners if the location is good. We are constantly looking at the land offer but some sellers still have unreasonable demands. It is hard for them to understand that a buyer will offer EUR 400,000-EUR 500,000 for a piece of land they paid EUR 2.5 million for a few years ago. Right now we have a steady land portfolio. We own land in Cluj, Timisoara, Oradea and Arad which we bought in 2006, 2007.

How many apartments have you sold through real estate agencies?

We have sold less than 10 percent of the apartments through real estate agencies.

Agencies work in a different manner.

They are interested in making money fast.

If a customer comes and asks for a EUR 50,000 apartment they will offer them an old apartment for that price and not bother convincing them to make an effort and consider a new one for EUR 70,000.

It is also the question of commission which they receive from us and from the buyer also.

We have sales offices on the grounds of all the projects. We also had a large-scale billboard campaign on the subway but now we mostly do our promoting via the internet, direct mailing and B2B campaigns with big companies in Bucharest.

simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

PROPERTY 13

LOGISTICS

Better logistics and transport policies ‘could add EUR 25 bln to Romania’s GDP’

T

h e right policies in the areas of transport and logistics could contribute up to EUR 25 billion to Romania’s GDP by 2025 and create 150,000 new jobs, concluded participants at the transport and logistics seminar, Romania’s Next Step in Becoming the Eastgate Trade Hub of Central and Eastern Europe.

Romania’s competitive position in Europe in these two areas could be enhanced with the development of the Constanta port, as it becomes a trade hub for CEE. “The new EU Member States plus Austria today account for more than 12 percent of EU’s GDP, yet the region attracts less than 1 percent of the sea freight coming to Europe. That is a huge imbalance, estimated in our calculations at more than 5 million containers TEU/year and 20 billion tons of bulk commodities, coming mostly from Eastern Asia and the Middle East, which should enter the region directly, but are transiting through north-western Europe,” said Robin Martens, managing director of the European Gateways Platform and director general of Archicom Romania, one of the co-organizers of the conference, alongside European Gateways Platform, the Dutch-Romanian Network, the Netherlands-Romania Chamber of Commerce and PwC Romania.

According to Martens, this situation is

The development of Constanta port could benefit from the new policies because countries in north-western Europe, such as the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, offer attractive fiscal frameworks for freight transporters and logistics operators.

In addition, they also have very good infrastructure capabilities for harbors, inland

logistics corridors and inland ports. “But for goods coming from Asia, longer routes mean greater costs, longer transport schedules and greater greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.

One way for Romania to attract a sub-

stantial part of the freight coming from Asia to Central and Eastern Europe would be to devise more attractive tax and legislative frameworks.

“Romania, through its strategic geographical position, could attract a substantial part of the freight coming from Asia to Central and Eastern Europe, if an adequate tax and legislative framework were put in place. We have already seen a solid increase in Romania’s exports in the past year. We are confident that if you add the right set of transport and logistics policies, Romania’s exports could grow even further, by adding the re-exporting of goods coming from Asia, or even semi-finished products and intermediary goods that are assembled in Romania and shipped abroad,” said Peter de Ruiter, president of the Netherlands-Romania Chamber of Commerce and partner, tax and legal services leader at PwC Romania.

In the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI), which ranks countries from one to five, one marking the worst performance for the category, Romania has a total score of 2.84. The LPI is the weighted average of the country scores on the six key dimensions: efficiency of the clearance process by border control agencies, including customs; quality of trade and transport related infrastructure; ease of arranging competitively priced shipments; competence and quality of logistics services; ability to track and trace consignments; and punctuality of shipments in reaching their destination within the scheduled or expected delivery time. ∫

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

14

German firms grit teeth and cling on German companies with local operations have mixed feelings about the pros and cons of doing business in Romania. Nevertheless, most German investors have weathered the crisis well and continue to find business opportunities in Romania, argued attendees at the third German Business Forum, organized by BR last week.

∫ SIMONA BAZAVAN

projects are not fully understood. Lack of thorough business plans also raises problems when companies are looking to obtain financing from banks, cautioned Thomas Debelic, senior representative of Commerzbank. While Romania has the legislative framework that regulates investments in green energy, the secondary legislation is still missing making it hard to implement the primary. Lack of clear legislation, something that also hampers financing, convinces many investors interested in investing in green

Thomas Debelic, Commerzbank

Rusandra Sandu, Noerr

“Romania has a generation of young people to learn and there is an opportunity for foreign investors to train them inhouse.”

“Investors contemplating starting a business outside their country are putting Romania on the same level as other countries in south-eastern Europe.”

Wilhelm Balbierer, Osram Romania “We see a clear development towards sustainable technologies and a clear interest to support this sector but the decision process is often interrupted”

Thomas Benedikt Singh, Reinhold Meister Group “In construction there are new tenders and new projects announced every day but many are being canceled before they are built.”

ing on the same level as other countries like Serbia and Croatia when foreign companies are looking for new destinations to expand their business said Rusandra Sandu, associated partner and head of the corporate/M&A department at Noerr and also the event’s moderator.

The third edition of the German Business Forum gathered around 50 attendees and was organized last week at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The event was sponsored by Noerr, Horvath & Partners and Lufthansa.

energy, including German ones, to put their projects on hold, said Uwe Kühn, managing partner of IRED Partners, a company specialized in energy projects including EU funding.

Nevertheless, Romania continues to have an interesting mix of factors that keeps it on the watch list for investors, commented Kurt Weber, managing director with Horvath & Partners.

Taking a look at what is happening in the region, Romania is now facing fiercer competition than before. It is seen as beRadu Merica, AHK, Romanian German Chamber of Commerce

Uwe Kühn, IRED Partners “A lot of investors from Germany are waiting – the law doesn’t give us the chance to finance entire green energy projects.”

“There are no big German investments in the pipeline for now but the expansion of existing production capacities.”

Sonja Kreibich, German Embassy to Bucharest “Romania has taken important steps to formulate strategies to get out of the recession and improve its business climate in general terms.”

Kurt Weber, Horvath & Partners

All photos: Laurentiu Obae

Romania continues to be an attractive investment destination from an economic perspective, but the general investment climate – the administrative, legal and judicial environment – still poses barriers to foreign investors in spite of the authorities’ efforts to address some of the existing issues, believes Sonja Kreibich, head of the economic section of the German Embassy to Bucharest. To give an example, the way in which public tenders are being handled lacks transparency with some being canceled without clear reasons, said Thomas Benedikt Singh, regional manager for Romania of Reinhold Meister Group.

Above all, there remains the issue of the general perception. “A problem we are still facing is the fact that Romania has a bad image,” added Radu Merica, president of AHK, the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce. He said that currently there are no big German investments in the pipeline, only expansion plans for already existing facilities.

While most of the German companies operating in Romania have remained here others have closed local operations, AHK’s president went on.

A field where Merica sees future growth potential is green energy, whether it is in delivering the necessary equipment or building production facilities. Present at the event, Wilhelm Balbierer, country chairman of Osram Romania, said there was a clear interest to develop this field but very often the costs of setting up and running such

“Romania continues to have an interesting mix of factors that keeps it on the list for investors: attractive labour costs, the size of the market, and a good industrial base.”

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

TALENT15

Local cuisine provides palatable profit While some entrepreneurs are hungry for expansion, restaurateur Dinu Pistalu’s appetite is sated with the present success of his eatery Babadochia. He told Business Review how the tastes of local diners had shaped his business recipe and how the restaurant’s progress to date is just a hors d’oeuvre. ∫ANDA SEBESI

Photo: Laurentiu Obae

Starting a business on the restaurant scene could mean biting off more than you can chew, as the local market is full to bursting at the moment. But while there are many players active in this tasty domain, there is still room for new entries, especially on well defined niches.

This is what Dinu Pistalu, managing partner of Babadochia, was banking on two years ago, when he decided to set up his own restaurant serving Romanian cuisine to fill a gap in the market.

“I started this business in 2009 when I realized that there weren’t that many restaurants serving Romanian cuisine in Bucharest. The concept of national specialties from Moldavia, Transylvania, the Banat, Walachia and the Dobruja recalls the doyenne of Romanian cuisine before 1990 – Sanda Marin,” says the entrepreneur. He adds that discovering Radu Anton Roman at that time also helped him to fully understand the diversity of Romanian cooking around the country.

Pistalu chose a specific niche targeting a clear segment of diners and focusing on a particular idea: that of evoking the tastes and dishes of childhood.

“Babadochia restaurant is mainly about old, traditional culinary arts. But it is also about the cuisine invented in the cottages of Heath, the sheepfolds of the Maramures area, and the houses of the Danube Delta, Moldavia and Bucharest,” says the restaurateur. He also paid attention to the food embraced by the old gastronomes and culinary historians. “This is why some of our traditional dishes have their original names, in order to respect the Romanian pioneers of gastronomy,” he adds.

The entrepreneur chose to set up this kind of business because he wanted to benefit from the huge potential of the local market at that time. And like any businessperson, Pistalu saw profits and challenges instead of difficulties in developing his restaurant.

“I considered this lack of restaurants

ness. It is a very dynamic market with a huge responsibility. We always want to fully satisfy our customers in order to make them come back to our restaurant and recommend us to other potential diners,” says Pistalu.

Each day is a challenge for the businessman, from choosing the best supplier in terms of quality-price ratio to trying to convince a Romanian to eat local food or providing the best service to groups of foreign tourists. Turning to the specifics of his market segment, the restaurateur says the competition is not yet too tough.

“There are no players with a similar business concept to ours. Each restaurant serving Romanian cuisine tries to be as original as possible, starting from its decoration to the creation of its menu,” says Pistalu.

On the topic of what differentiates his eatery from the crowd, the entrepreneur says that in Romanian cuisine you cannot invent anything new. So originality is crucial for the success of such a business. “We saw several Romanian restaurants with different styles of decoration, from rustic to modern. We chose Art Nouveau, the inter-war style, and we offer dishes for all tastes.”

As for future plans, Pistalu prefers to Any business that positions itself on remain cautious. “We intend to live in the a specific market niche takes a gamble behere and now,” he says. A rational entrecause of its limited number of potential preneur, he intends to concentrate on the customers, and so the market approach present situation of his business rather needs to be very clear. “It’s probably than making big plans for the coming hard to believe but promoting this busiyears. ness and our intention to create a specific “I think that each restaurant tries to ofoutlook for this kind of restaurant needed a lot of patience from us over time. fer high quality services and dishes. I believe that it is more realistic to limit our And I can add that our mission is not fulfuture plans to this goal. We still have ly accomplished yet,” says the managing many things to develop in this business partner. and we simply cannot think about the fuHe notes that Romanians are still at ture,” says the restaurateur. the stage where their main choice is beHe adds that when the eatery reachtween a Romanian and Italian restaurant es a certain level of development, that will for example, which is a tremendous chalbe the time to consider further plans for lenge for him.

Babadochia.

If he started another venture he says it wouldn’t be a restaurant. “I would probably choose a less perishable busianda.sebesi@business-review.ro

BABADOCHIA Established: 2009 2010 estimated turnover: EUR 110,000 2011 estimated turnover: EUR 126,500 Number of employees: 12 Initial investment: EUR 120,000 serving Romanian cuisine as potentially profitable, because of the increased demand for such dishes, especially from foreign tourists,” he says. “We identified this market niche and we thought that the authentic Romanian tastes could catch the fancy of those people who want both to go out and to remain loyal to traditional cuisine.”

Join the

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Duties include covering press conferences, writing industry news and features, conducting interviews and contributing articles to the Business Review website.

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www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

16 CITY LANDMARK

hotel does not have an official “thirteenth floor”, perhaps reflecting one of the architects’ superstitions.

Architect Belea described the context in which the hotel was built. “In 1966, there were politically favorable conditions for the InterContinental chain to appear in Romania and for a hotel to be contracted here. With Bucharest’s chief architect, Prof.

Maicu, we began researching sites for the first internationally significant hotel to be built in Bucharest. The hotel’s original design was similar to its current form, with three banana-shaped wings, but they were initially envisaged to be much longer and the hotel much shorter. Intercontinental representatives decided that University Square was the center of the city and that is why we built it here, in the place of a former restaurant, La Zisu.”

Personal stories

The InterCon: 40 years of Bucharest history Bucharest’s landmark five-star hotel celebrates forty years of existence recently. The imposing building has been a silent witness to some of the most important events in the capital city’s history, including the 1977 earthquake and the 1989 revolution, and was designed by the same architect now responsible for the renovation of the neighboring building, the National Theater of Bucharest. ∫ CORINA DUMITRESCU The history of the InterContinental Hotel began in the 1960s when a representative of Cyrus Eaton Group arrived in Bucharest.

Cyrus Eaton had the idea of building an InterContinental hotel in the Romanian capital because he did not have anywhere else to spend the night, since all the accommodation was fully booked. Thus, the Romanian Government and the InterContinental Hotel Corporation agreed to build

a hotel in Bucharest. The hotel was built to a design that drew on the expertise of Romanian architects D. Hariton, Ghe. Nadrag, I. Moscu and Romeo Belea, now responsible for the National Theater of Bucharest’s facelift. Romanian constructors, engineers and workers participated in the project and the building was finished in three years, a record for those days.

In the opinion of one of the longest-serving general managers of the hotel, Marian Stancu, whose tenure ran from 1980-2004,

the hotel had to abide by international standards. “There was a perfect combination of the requirements of world standards with the local specifics – from architecture to gastronomy.”

Towering over Bucharest for 25 years At the time of its opening, the Intercontinental was, and remained for 25 years, the tallest building in Bucharest, at 90 meters divided into 22 floors. In a design quirk, the

To its employees, the hotel was a Western oasis in a desert of communism. “When I came to work, it was like I was entering another world. I was no longer in communist Romania,” recalls Elena Burghelea, former housekeeping manager. In spite of this, some local elements were appreciated by foreigners. “Guests from abroad were very pleased with the taste of Romanian food.

This was partly because we purchased our vegetables, fruit, meat and cheese from local producers and back then, in Romania, the chemical substances used abroad had not yet entered the local market. A cocktail of crab tails with raw salad and Calypso sauce was very popular in those days and cost 17 ROL,” cook Iulian Stanciu recalls.

The earthquake of 1977, the 1989 revolution, the mineriads and the more recent NATO summit are only a few of the events the hotel has been through. An employee of the hotel, who worked in the laundry, remembers the 1977 earthquake, one of the most devastating in Romania’s recent history. “There were a lot of guests in the hotel at the time. There was no severe damage, but those who were staying on the top floors got more scared. The plaster fell off some walls, and from the next day all employees took part in the clean-up. In a week, one could not even see that there had been an earthquake.”

Moving onto the 1989 revolution, of which the hotel was at the epicenter, a telex received in January 1990 from the InterContinental board congratulated the hotel’s employees “for their excellent level of service offered to guests during recent events in Romania.”

The big-name guests to have stayed at the hotel include Lenny Kravitz; Bill Gates; the Harlem Globe Trotters; Robert Gates, chief of the Pentagon and White House press officer during the NATO summit; Zucchero; Prince Hassan of Jordan; Demis Roussos; Jose Carreras; Shimon Peres, President of Israel; Jacques Yves Cousteau; Luciano Pavarotti; Boy George; Richard Claydermann; Bjorg Borg; Stan Smith; Billy Idol; Latoya Jackson; the Kessler sisters; and Yehudi Menuhin.

The hotel is owned by Compania Hoteliera InterContinental Romania, which registered a turnover of EUR 4.75 million in the first semester of 2010. It is operated, management-wise, by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which franchises and manages over 4,000 hotels throughout the world.

The initial investment in the hotel was USD 6 million, and was supported by the Romanian state.

corina.dumitrescu@business-review.ro

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

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LANDMARK CITY 17 2

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1. Local and international guests appreciated the hotel’s cuisine and especially the natural, fresh Romanian products; 2. In communist times, employees regarded the hotel as an oasis of the Western world; 3. The InterCon was a place for dressing up to the nines; 4. The hotel’s gym was quite a rarity in communist times; 5. The InterCon’s exquisite architecture stood out by the standards of the times; 6. An investment of such proportions could not have gone by unnoticed in the international media; 7. Although no longer the tallest building in Bucharest, the hotel still towers over Bucharest’s historical center; 8. The New York Times spoke of the American investment to Romania as a major event of the times.

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All photos:courtesy of Intercontinental

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

18 CITY RESTAURANT REVIEW

RESTAURANT SELECTION Business Review gives you a selection of top Bucharest restaurants. You can check the full-length versions of all the reviews by our resident restaurant critic, Michael Barclay, on our website www.business-review.ro.

Roberto’s revisited Roberto’s at the Hilton, tel 021 303 3777 MICHAEL BARCLAY I have not eaten at the Hilton for over a year, and for two very good reasons, namely: it has been closed for some time for renovation, and the menu was dull and unimaginative. The latter was entirely due to the chef and his boss, and since they have both moved on, it is time to look at the Hilton again. So with a new Italian chef and new management together with a total facelift, checking them out was irresistible.

And what a facelift they have had.

Doubtless you all remember the old restaurant with its big central ‘gondola’ displaying cold dishes, bench wall seats and a tiny stage. Well, it’s all gone. The new Roberto’s is a delight. The old floors have been replaced with a combination of parquet, hard wood blocks and marble. All of the seating arrangements have been changed in a configuration to accommodate specific groups of tables for two or four diners together with groups.

The kitchen wall has been knocked down to reveal a semi-open kitchen, and as for the atmosphere – it smells beautifully like the interior of a new Bentley. All polished wood and rich leather aromas from the new seats.

So far, so good. To match the impeccable interior we had the usual Hilton impeccable service from their impeccable staff. But we didn’t get down to their new menu as we were informed that they had a private event on so the kitchen was booked up, which means no a la carte menu, just the terrace menu. OK, these things happen, but I have to tell you what we missed from the a la carte. I nearly died from frustration in anticipation of their starters such as ‘chicken liver pate on a bruschetta with Scamorza’ (a combination of cow and goat cheese), ‘Burrata (a combo of mozzarella and cream) with basil oil and roast tomato’ and ‘ruccola and asparagus salad with two-year matured Parmesan and Taggiashe olives (uniquely flavoured olives from the Liguria region of Italy).’

By now it was apparent that the House had gone to an extra effort to import Italy’s unique regional products. This policy was extended to their mains which included the shamefully healthy organic pastas from Dl.

Valentino Felicetti in the Umbria region and another pasta made from organic Egyptian Kamut flour. The menu groaned under the weight of so many regional Italian specialities such as ‘swordfish Beccaficu’ (a Palermo dish usually served with nut and vegetable stuffed sardines) and ‘calamari Panzanella’ (a combo of bread, olives, garlic, balsamic, onion, tomato and basil). I could go on forever, but I missed all of these beauties. Now see what I did get.

So they gave me the La Strada Terrace menu, which was quick summer terrace food including pizzas and pastas. I started with a Calabrese pizza which was a failure as the pastry base was as hard as stone. I simply could not cut it! The kitchen’s mistake was obvious as they had not stretched the pizza dough and added yeast (drojdie).

I forgave them for this as the rest of their bread (a similar formula to pizza dough) was superb. OK, every kitchen can have a bad day and I suspect that you will get a perfect pizza base when you go there. So our perfect waitress Gabby was gracious enough to strike it off the bill! This wonderful girl has served me and other Hilton regulars (whom she knows by name) for 12 years. She is a perfection of professionalism, so bravo House!

Off I went to their salad section. I can never get excited about salads other than to say that if they are fresh, they are acceptable. The Caesar salad was fresh and correctly made, so it was good. We passed on their well planned sandwich section which started with a choice of breads including baguette, or ciabata, or focaccia... and thereafter you add your filling from a well composed selection of choices such as Mozzarella, Prosciutto, bacon, ruccola, cheddar, onion Brie, tomato and salami.

My main was a ‘cod on a bed of asparagus and wrapped in a rosti (shredded fried potato)’. It was so generously large that it filled me and spoiled me from further sampling the menu. They really have gone to extraordinary efforts to ensure that their dishes are unique to the House and are not found elsewhere in other restaurants, and I must commend them for that. And now for the biggest surprise of all. The prices are all so reasonable that they can compete on an equal footing with any other quality restaurant in town.

mab.media@dnt.ro

Bistro Epoque Cuisine: French Address: 17C Intrarea Aurora Street Reservations: 021 312 32 32

www.epoque.ro The Bistro Epoque is a smart-casual restaurant offering guests gourmet French cuisine from its master chef Guy Martin. Owner of the restaurant Le Grand Vefour in Paris and holder of two Michelin stars, Martin creates the menus which include a variety of vegetarian dishes.

Divan Cuisine: Turkish Address: Franceza 46 Reservations: 021 312 3034 www.thedivan.ro Expect the usual suspects of hummus, eggplant puree, spiced tomato and so on.

They have a larger selection of kebabs on offer than their competitors and this includes beef, lamb, beef and lamb combo, chicken and marinated meat stuffed in an eggplant. And unlimited hot fresh bread.

It is vastly superior to other Turkish eateries and has a larger menu.

Heritage Cuisine: Fusion Address: Polona 19 Reservations: 021 210 8850 www.heritage-restaurant.eu After five years of making mistakes along with constant changes of management, chefs and directors, it appears that Heritage has finally got it right! They brought the mountain to Mohammed by importing a Michelin-starred chef. The menu is

Courtesy of Heritage

Photo: Laurentiu Obae

New look: the Hilton’s Italian eatery has emerged from a makeover

Arcade Cuisine: International Address: Ion Cantacuzino 8 Reservations: 0753 999 333 www.restaurantarcade.ro Over the last nine years, Arcade has become a gastronomic institution in this town. It is best known for its fabulous location and vast summer terrace, but you really should go there in winter to enjoy its warm, homely villa ambiance. This is a top quality, sophisticated chophouse that can compete with the best alternative restaurants in town which could cost twice the price. Their signature dish is Pork Osso Bucco, a deviation from the original beef version. Simply superb.

fixed (rather than a long, tedious, rambling a la carte which so many restaurants choose here) with three variations: ‘Classic’, ‘Evolution’, and ‘Vegetarian’. And in a catalogue of surprises you will see that for the first time, Heritage is affordable. Gone are the crazy prices of the past, and as proof there is the entry level of one main course at EUR 59, including five luxurious tapas dishes to start, and a medley of chocolate lollipops at the end of your meal. It is cheaper still if you share a three- or four-course meal with your friends.

La Veranda Cuisine: Seafood Address: Crowne Plaza, Poligrafiei 1 Reservations: 021 224 0034 www.laveranda.ro Here we have a House that challenges you with a choice of preparations, and for the first time ever, they even offer you a selection of fish sauces. The standards of the House have been raised to a point that the Crowne has well and truly regained its culinary crown. The finest fish restaurant in the land, and Chef Ashlie will be delighted to come to your table to answer your questions or to give you cooking advice.

Osho Cuisine: American: steak and grill Address: Primaverii 19 Reservations: 021 568 3031 www.osho-restaurant.ro They modestly call themselves a steakhouse, but it is much, much more than that. If you enter it from the front end of the building, you will find yourself in a shop which sells all of the chophouse’s products, ‘over the counter’ at retail prices. This includes not only their extensive range of meat products, but an array of up to 20 Italian cheeses and salamis. Add to that a rich list of French and Italian fine wines, and you have a ‘deli where you can dine’.

Taverna La Zavat Cuisine: Greek Address: Popa Nan 16 Reservations: 021 252 2956 www.taverna-lazavat.ro The second best fish restaurant in town.

It is relatively cheap and has a comprehensive range of fish on its menu. The location is a bit of a dump, though this keeps the prices low. Go now and test the chef by asking him to go “off piste” from his menu and alter it for you. I bet he will do so.

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

BR CLUB 19

BR Club brushes up on details of art market Why is it a good idea to invest in art? What should one consider before making an investment in the local art market? How can you know what return to expect? Participants in the second BR Club event organized by Business Review last week had the opportunity of putting themselves firmly in the picture on these topics and others. ∫ STAFF

editorial@business-review.ro

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All photo: Laurentiu Obae

As well as being the preferred passion investment of many, since it is the type of alternative asset with the highest potential to gain value, art investments also preserve their worth in times of economic downturn. Specialists consider the field suitable for those looking at diversifying their investment portfolio, and it is a tangible asset that can provide a hedge against inflation. These generic arguments in favor of investing in art have obviously persuaded increasing numbers of buyers, as Artmark puts the local market at EUR 8.3 million in 2010, up EUR 3.7 million on 2009. Interest is evenly split between collectors and investors, according to a talk given at the BR event by Manuela Plapcianu, CEO of Artmark auction house. With demand growing from those looking variously for multifunctional investments, profitability, ornamental objects, aesthetic satisfaction and social prestige, the range of works available is expanding slightly but naturally limited in the case of heritage art.

Overall, the annual yield of the Romanian art market for the last 15 years (1995 to 2010) has been 36 percent, according to Artmark data. Last year the figure was 40 percent. But how does a buyer start their research? An Index of the Romanian Art Market has been available since 2009. Devised by Artmark, the index is a book listing the average annual yields and market quotations of more than 1,000 Romanian artists, both contemporary and Old Masters. The index monitors and processes every public sale through art auctions in Romania in the past 16 years, and offers annual quotations, annual turnover plus medium annual performance of the entire period in which an artist’s work is available on the market, as well as the evolution of the market value of Romanian artists. Another instrument available is the Art Significant Indices, featuring weekly quotations of 100 best known Romanian artists.

The top local auction sales in 2009 were Camil Resu’s Aise, which sold for EUR 160,000, and Marcel Iancu’s Port, which went for EUR 130,000. Of this year’s 10 best selling paintings, the top four places are taken by Nicolae Grigorescu works. Tarancuta odihnindu-se (Peasant Woman Resting) grossed EUR 270,000; Carciuma la Rucar (Pub in Rucar) was auctioned for EUR 230,00; La marginea padurii (At the Edge of the Forest) went for EUR 200,000; while Pastorita (The Shepherd Woman) netted EUR 175,000.

The BR Club series of events are designed to bring to the attention of its members the perspective, experience, and vision of local and foreign experts on key topics of the business, social and artistic environment.

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1. Manuela Plapcianu, CEO of Artmark, and Anca Ionita, business development manager at BR 2. Guests had the rare opportunity to view the hidden trove of the Bucharest Municipal Museum 3. (L to R) Claudia Pendred, EBRD director for Romania; Neil Coupland, GM Romania and Bulgaria at JTI; and Yifat Inbar with economic section of the Israeli Embassy 4. Karim Kheirat, country manager of ICAP Romania, and Irina Budrina, professor at the Bucharest University 5. Oana Molodoi, sales and events director at BR, and Sonia Nastase, GM of the Bucharest HoJo 6.

Andreea Nastase, VP of corporate communications at RMGC 7.

Stefan Kero, GM of Fujitsu 8. Manuela Plapcianu spoke on investing in art 9. Laurent Charlier, GM of Gras Savoy 10. Robert Maxim, managing partner of Ensight 11. Ioannis Paschalis with the Embassy of Greece in Romania 12. Anthony Kuhnen, GM of Epoque Hotel 13. BR Club members enjoy the talk

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

20 CITY JAZZ

Jazz pianist Lucian Ban brings the sounds of America to Romania

Courtesy of www.lucianban.com

Homecoming: jazzman Lucian Ban

More than a decade since his departure from Romania to pursue a jazz career in New York, pianist Lucian Ban is returning to his home country with a special project, presenting his vision of America through music. The solo piano recital American Landscapes will take place at Teatrul Act, in Bucharest, on June 1.

Ban explains his fascination with American music: “What fascinated me in my musical trips throughout the US was

mainly the extraordinary diversity, with myriads of genres and sources from all throughout the world – America is the definitive place for global immigration – but especially the ubiquitous avant-garde spirit and its constant experimentation.”

Twice nominated in 2005 & 2006 for the prestigious Hans Koller Best European Jazz Musician Preis award, pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger Lucian Ban is originally from Cluj, Transylvania. He currently lives in New York City, where he is part of the next generation of performers and composers at the forefront of contemporary jazz.

His talent has been acclaimed by critics throughout the world. Jazz critic Jeff Stockton mused, “Ban’s tasteful, reflective piano playing combines the elegance and technical precision of the European classical tradition with wideranging musical interests and a passion for improvisation.”

The show will begin at 19.00. Tickets are on sale at the Teatrul Act box office, open from Monday to Friday, between 11.00 and 18.30, and during weekends, between 12.00 and 18.30. For further information or reservations, please visit www.teatrulact.ro or call 021 310 3103 or 0723 103 103. ∫ Corina Dumitrescu

POP/ORCHESTRAL

Sting ready to get symphonic A little over a week remains until Sting’s greatest hits concert in Romania, which takes place on June 6, in Piata Constitutiei. The signer’s Symphonicity tour features symphonically re-orchestrated versions of some of his best known songs, both as a solo artist and with The Police.

The tour is coming to Romania after sold-out concerts in North America, Europe and Australia. It will continue to France, Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe. The British artist, born Gordon Sumner, is bringing to Romania a show described as “extraordinary” by the German publication Bild Hamburg and as “pure magic” by the Polish Rzeczpospolita. “Sting and his orchestra are magical rock,” enthused La Stampa.

The song selection includes The Police’s Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Roxanne, Next To You and Every Breath You Take, as well as Sting’s solo hits, Englishman in New York, Fragile, Russians, If I Ever Lose My Faith in You, Fields Of Gold and Desert Rose. The artist will be accompanied on stage by successful artists including Dominic Miller (guitar), Rhani Krija (percussion), Jo Lawry (voice) and Ira Coleman (bass).

Sting has sold over 100 million records worldwide. The Bucharest concert is being organized by Emagic. Tickets are available for purchase on www.myticket.ro and from Diverta stores across the country, for RON 395, 295, 195 and 135. ∫ Corina Dumitrescu

CHILDREN’S DAY

Children take to the skies on June 1 National airline Tarom is organizing a series of five special flights on the occasion of Children’s Day, on June 1. The flights will consist of 45-minute roundtrips departing from Bucharest.

Children will be given the opportunity to become familiar with an aircraft, meet the personnel, both flight attendants and pilots, and may enter the aircraft cabin. They will learn how an airplane works and how the onboard equipment functions.

Children aged between 2 and 12 can participate in these flights, but they must be accompanied by adults. The promotional fee on June 1 is RON 10 per child.

Children over 12 will pay adult rates,

RON 200, but cannot accompany children under 12.

Tickets, which are all for economy class, can be purchased in advance exclusively from the Piata Victoriei Tarom agency (Buzesti Street, Piata Victoriei, no. 59) and on the day of the flight at the Tarom ticketing point (Henri Coanda International Airport, International Departures Terminal, ground floor). The plane will take off at 12.00 and passengers need to present themselves at check-in two hours beforehand. The next Tarom flight lessons will take place on June 18 and 25, July 2 and 9. On these days, children’s tickets will cost RON 100. ∫ Corina Dumitrescu

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

CITY 21

FILM REVIEW

Priest

Directed by: Scott Stewart Starring: Paul Bettany, Maggie G, Cam Gigandet On at: · Cinema City Cotroceni, Cinema City Sun Plaza, Hollywood Multiplex, Movieplex Cinema, The Light Cinema

∫ DEBBIE STOWE

Getting cross: Paul Bettany is a priest on a mission

It is a time of wooa-arh! Some time in the future, humans will be cowering together in post-apocalyptic Matrix-esque cities while outside their confines vampires stalk the Earth. And not handsome, Robert Pattison types with chiselled jaws and proper manners either, but slimy, faceless fiends that want, as every self-respecting movie fiend does – to take over the world!Standing between the hapless humans and the vicious vampires are the Priests, godly men and women whose ruthless fighting skills and mastery of weapons are somehow not inconsistent with their robes and piety. I suppose priest’s tunics leave one’s legs conveniently unencumbered if a spot of karate chopping is required.

Our eponymous hero is Paul Bettany, whose quiet existence (the Church officially thinks the vampires have been vanquished and has decommissioned its kung-fuing clergy, but we know better, don’t we viewers?) is interrupted when his attractive young niece Lucy (Lily Collins, daughter of Phil) is kidnapped by blood suckers.

Alerted to her plight by her sheriff

boyfriend Hicks (Cam Gigandet) – they must have a groovy kind of love, ho ho – and helped by an underused Maggie Q as Priestess, Priest must rescue her and also thwart the evil head vampire Black Hat (Karl Urban), a rogue clergyman, by blowing up his train.

If it all sounds a bit Western, that’s because Priest takes its cues from oater traditions, with added motorbikes and monsters amid the dusty planes and gorges. It is similarly violent, though the fights are couched in the standard genre grammar and delivered with the stylized silliness appropriate for a film that’s based on a Korean comic. Importantly, the picture doesn’t make the mistake of taking itself too seriously, or of boring its audience with too long a running time, and everything clips along at an efficient pace. Nor does it shoehorn in a romantic subplot involving Maggie Q, though there is the odd hint that this is pending.

Priest is predictable, implausible and derivative, borrowing liberally from previous Westerns, sci-fis and actions. But such gripes are to miss the point. It does not set out to be novel or profound, merely to be an effective and entertaining flick, one which does exactly what it says on the tin. With Bettany, Gigandet and Q’s solid performances supplemented by a dash of gravitas from a brief Christopher Plummer cameo, there is no shame in confessing to having enjoyed this devout entry into the vampire canon.

editorial@business-review.ro

www.business-review.ro Business Review | May 30 - June 5, 2011

22 IN TOUCH CULTURAL EVENTS

BUSINESS AGENDA

Concerts May 30 Zone Arena 17.00 Swedish band Roxette take the Joyride to Bucharest. The band have included Romania in their 2011 tour, marking a new album release after an almost eight-year break in their career.

Art Contemporary Art Museum April 14 – June 12 Zimoun & Hannes Zweifel: Prepared DC-Motors, Cardboard Zimoun presents, in collaboration with architect Hannes Zweifel, a new installation based on cardboard and prepared dc-motors.

June 1 Act Theater 19.00 Piano player Lucian Ban is returning to his home country with a special project, presenting his vision of America through music.

The solo recital is called American Landscapes.

April 29 – July 31 Kretzulescu Halls The National Museum of Art of Romania Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).

Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji The National Museum of Art of Romania invites the public to visit the Japanese print exhibition Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849). Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. The curator of the exhibition is Carmen Brad, oriental art specialist.

June 6 Piata Constitutiei Sting brings his Symphonicity tour to Romania. The singer will present symphonically re-orchestrated versions of some of his best known songs, both from this time as a solo artist and as part of The Police.

George Enescu Philharmonic June 1 Romanian Athenaeum, Sala Mica 19.00 Romanian music concert Performers: Ulpiu Vlad, Catalin Cretu, Maia Ciobanu, Nicolae Brandus, Fred Popovici June 5 Romanian Athenaeum, Sala Mica 19.00 Chamber recital On the bill: Schubert-Liszt, SchumannLiszt, Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, Hugo Wolf, Zoltan Kodaly Performers: Tunde Gaspar (soprano), Gabor Nagy (piano)

Photo exhibitions May 28-June 24 Crowne Plaza An A to Z of Romania – Through the Lenses of Expat Women Children’s events June 1 Otopeni airport 12.00 Tarom organizes flight lesson for children TAROM is organizing a series of five special flights on the occasion of Children’s Day, celebrated on June 1.

June 1 Romanian Peasant Museum 10.00-18.00 The museum celebrates children’s day Handmade toy fairs, plays and a toy exchange event as well as various workshops for children.

May 30 11:00 An educational campaign for the prevention of cardiovascular risks, SOS Cardio will be launched at Novotel Hotel. By invitation only.

May 31 10:30 The Vodafone Romania Foundation launches the second edition of the Professional Volunteer program at Crowne Plaza Hotel. By invitation only.

11:00 Henkel Romania organizes a press conference to announce the starting of works at its third local production facility. By invitation only.

June 1 10:30 Senior Software organizes a press conference following the takeover of Content Speed. By invitation only.

11:00 Contrast Management Consulting organizes a press conference on the latest trends in FMCG retail at Radisson Hotel By invitation only.

June 2 10:30 The US Embassy organizes a press conference on the American presence in Romania at the American Cultural Center. By invitation only.

June 7 ∫EVENT Business Review organizes the third American Business Forum event at JW Marriott Grand Hotel. For more info please visit www.businessreview.ro/events.

June 8 ∫EVENT Business Review organizes the 2nd ICAP Credit Risk Conference at Athenee Palace Hilton. More at www.business-review.ro/events.

WHAT WE ARE WORKING ON Corina Dumitrescu Journalist is researching the local blogging and social media community, as recent information from digital agency Hyperactive shows that the local digital market will reach EUR 47.5-55 million in 2011. Romanian bloggers are competing against major local publications for readership and are increasingly acknowledged as opinion leaders among their target audience.

Brands are turning them into product ambassadors and more and more of them are being recruited by companies as online communication aficionados. corina.dumitrescu@business-review.ro

Simona Bazavan Journalist is writing a report on Dutch investments in Romania.

According to official data, Dutch and Austrian companies have disputed the top position among foreign investors to Romania for the past decade. Many of the Dutch investors active in Romania are Dutchcapitalized companies, others are foreign companies registered in the Netherlands due to a friendlier fiscal regime than in other European countries. simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

WHO’S NEWS Cristian Gavrila joins RTPR Allen & Overy as counsel and head of litigation and arbitration. He previously worked as partner at one of the top ten local law firms. Gavrila has been involved in over 20 international arbitration cases while locally he has won litigation cases in fields such as competition, public acquisitions and communications. He has been a member of the

ISSN No. 1453 - 729X

Business Review welcomes information for Who’s News from readers.

Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. Get in touch at simona.bazavan@business-review.ro

(43) has been appointed counselor to the president-general director of the Romanian Television Broadcaster (TVR) for web and multimedia development strategies. He has over 20 years of professional experience in telecommunications, broadcasting, media and management consultancy. Corobana has previously worked for Harris Broadcasting (1999-2006), for Radiocom SA, Mo-

Ovidiu Mihaila has been appointed general manager of telecommunication operator Teletrans, effective from May 25. He takes over this position from Horia Hahaianu, who has

taken over the management of Transelectrica.

Mihaila, aged 43, worked previously as general manager of the Romanian Center for the Promotion of Commerce and Foreign Investments, under the Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business Environment.

For a period of six months, he was advisor to the Teletrans general manager.

FOUNDING EDITOR Bill Avery EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simona Fodor SENIOR JOURNALIST Otilia Haraga JOURNALISTS Simona Bazavan, Corina Dumitrescu COPY EDITOR Debbie Stowe COLLABORATORS Anda Sebesi, Michael Barclay ART DIRECTOR Alexandru Oriean PHOTOGRAPHER Laurentiu Obae LAYOUT Beatrice Gheorghiu

PUBLISHER Anca Ionita EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR George Moise SALES & EVENTS DIRECTOR Oana Molodoi MARKETING MANAGER Adina Milea SALES & EVENTS Ana-Maria Nedelcu, Claudia Munteanu RESEARCH & SUBSCRIPTION Lili Voineag PRODUCTION Dan Mitroi DISTRIBUTION Eugen Musat

ADDRESS No. 10 Italiana St., 2nd floor, ap. 3 Bucharest, Romania LANDLINE Editorial: 031.040.09.32 Office: 031.040.09.31 Fax: 031.040.09.34 EMAILS Editorial: editorial@business-review.ro Sales: sales@business-review.ro Events: events@business-review.ro

Bucharest Bar since 2000 and is fluent in English.

Cristian Corobana

bilrom and Ericsson Romania. Since 2006 he had been at Romtelecom where he was involved in launching the satellite Pay TV, Dolce and IPTV. He graduated from the Electronics and Telecommunications Faculty in Iasi (1992) and holds an MBA from Vienna University.