General

The home improvement retailer Kingfisher has completed the redecoration of six more former Bricostore units, their inauguration under the Brico Depot brand being scheduled this week, on October 17. The transformation of the six ‘deposits’ located in Arad, Brasov, Chiajna (Militari District), Oradea Ploiesti and Pitesti began in August and has been carried out in record time, hence bringing the retail network on the local market to eight units....more »

The new board of Romania’s National Bank has been officially appointed, as the former members ended their mandates on October 10, 2014. Mugur Isarescu will lead the board whose major goals are to join the euro-area and to adhere to the European Banking Union. Isarescu, who has been the BNR’s governor for the past 24 years maintains his position for another five years. As are Florin Georgescu who was re-confirmed as first deputy governor and Bogdan Olteanu, deputy governor, following the Parliament vote this June....more »

The much-expected ‘re-writing’ of the Fiscal Code is little likely be approved by the Parliament by the end of this year, hence, any amendments to the existing one will be eventually made through an emergency ordinance in 2015, explained Dan Badin, Tax&Legal Partner-in-Charge with Deloitte Romania, during the company’s annual Legal & Tax conference. A new deferral in updating the Fiscal Code is a result of the slow decision-making process within the Parliament, as most of the related tax issues have been discussed during the consultations held with the business environment, stated Badin. He further emphasized the necessity for Romania to have the old Fiscal Code rewritten, as an emergency ordinance issued by the Government can only partially fix the current shortcomings indicated frequently by the business environment....more »

The Competition Council has imposed financial sanctions on 11 media companies, the fines amounting to about 3.2 million euro (14.5 million lei). Brand Programming Network, B.V. McCann-Erickson, Groupm Media Operations, Initiative Media, Mediaedgecia Romania, Mindshare Media, Opti Media, Starcom Mediavest Group, United Media Services, Zenith Media Communications are the companies affected, according to a press release of the competition authority....more »

The division
process of Electrocentrale Bucharest S.A. (ELCEN), the largest domestic
thermal energy producer, has been
concluded and two new companies have been created - ”Societatea
Electrocentrale Constanta S.A.” and ”Societatea Electro...more »

Ioan Rus, the Minister of Transport, presented the new General Transport Master Plan (GTMP) draft, which reflects the transport development strategy for 2014-2030, a prerequisite for attracting related-EU funds. The Master Plan, approved by the EU Commission, was released for public debate until October 30, 2014....more »

Belgian postal services operator bpost is the sole company which put forward a non-biding offer for the privatization of the Romanian Post. The offer was submitted on September 30, the last day of the allocated time frame and in case it is selected by the Ministry for Information Society, negotiations could be initiated without any obligation of coming up with a biding offer....more »

In September, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) decreased in Romania, confirming the decline visible within both the EU and the euro area. After four months of successive advance, the ESI fell from 101 to 99.8 points, according to the survey displayed on the EU Commission’s website....more »

The effects of introducing the new particular conditions related to the contracts designed for investments in transport
infrastructure projects as proposed by the joint initiative of the Ministry of
Transport, ARIC (the Romanian Association of Co...more »

The company in charge with the management of the State’s interest in the energy sector (SAPE) has been admitted the request for arbitration in the Enel case, by the International Court of Arbitration from Paris (ICA), reads a news release from the Department for Energy....more »