Following the announced acquisition of SABMiller by the Belgians from AB InBev for an estimated 100 billion EUR, the new owners announced the intention to sell the assets and local beer brands from Central and Eastern Europe, including Romania. Ursus, Timisoreana, and Ciucas are the Romanian brands in SABMiller's portfolio that will be up for sale in order to win approval from the European Commission. 

“Noriel” group, the largest toys and games retailer in Romania was purchased by the Polish private equity fund Enterprise Investors, one of the biggest private equity funds in Central and Eastern Europe that gathers 8 funds with a total capital of over 2 billion EUR.

Axxess Capital (minority shareholder) and brothers Cristian and George Constantinescu (founders and majority shareholders) closed the deal with Enterprise Investors, that also owns the supermarket chains “Profi”, for companies Noriel Impex, Toys and Games Industry, and Intertoy Zone. The sale purchase agreement was signed yesterday and the transaction will be closed subject to approval by the Competition Council and the fulfilment of other conditions precedent.

Invia, the largest online travel agency in the Czech Republic, and one of the most notorious online travel deals providers in Central and Eastern Europe owned by MCI Tech Ventures, was purchased by Rockaway Capital SE, member of a private and risk capital investment house in the Czech Republic, with offices in San Francisco, and Sao Paolo. Rockaway Capital SE was legally assisted by Wolf Theiss law firm, more exactly by its branches from Bucharest, Prague, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. For the component in Romania of the transaction (Invia Travel SRL), Ileana Glodeanu, coordinating partner of Corporate practices and M&A in Bucharest, and Marius Ciocirlea, senior lawyer, coordinated the team of lawyers.

The green celebration of St. Patrick’s Day hits the streets of Bucharest on Sunday, March 20th, with a Parade organized by Ireland Romania Network. 

His Excellency, Mr. Derek Feely, Ambassador of Ireland to Romania, and Mr. John Long, president of Ireland Romania Network will open the parade that starts on Kiseleff Blvd., at the Peasant’s Museum, at 3 PM, and will finish two hours later in front of the Romanian Athenaeum.

UPS, the global leading logistic services provider has a new Country Manager for Romania, Hungary and Greece. The Irish Jim Kearney has a background of 27 years of experience in UPS and will be coordinating a team of approximately 650 employees.  His responsibilities include operations, business development, and the UPS strategy in the three countries.  Over the years, Kearney’s career in UPS evolved from a simple administrative worker in the financial-accounting department of UPS UK, to several positions within the same department, and later on became office manager for European Consolidated Service Center in Dublin.

Romania could become one of the best places for entrepreneurship in Europe but Romanian entrepreneurs with vision, planning on extending their opperations to regional level do not receive institutional support, said Bogdan Ion, Country Managing Partner of EY in the opening session of the Romanian Business Leaders Summit. He gave the example of Mircea Tudor, whose innovation for plane scanner "is now promoted by the Swiss government and receives tax breaks."

Romanian Business Leaders Foundation Leaders is an association that aims to develop a platform for social action and involvement of private sector leaders. The ultimate goal is for Romania to become a better country for doing business responsibly. The expanding sommunity of Romanian Business Leaders includes over 400 entrepreneurs and heads of companies in Romania working voluntarily in concrete projects they generate in education, entrepreneurial culture and good governance.

European Commissioner Cretu mentioned during a press conference that Romania has significant delays on a number of areas for European funds. “Romania has so far met 14 out of 22 requirements set by the European Commission, but still has areas with significant delays” said Cretu. She adds that there are 280 investment projects for the next years regarding healthcare facilities nd 65 emergency care rooms at county hospitals and three regional hospitals.

This follows the recent announcement by the European Commission that payments for Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development POSDRU will be interrupted again because of irregularities in the way of project selection, discovered by European officials in a mission audit conducted last year between October 21 to November 10. POSDRU payments were discontinued or suspended by the EC several times in recent years, amid suspicions of fraud.