AUSTRIA

• Furniture retailer settles in
  Furniture retailer Kika-Leiner intends to open three stores in Bucharest, Timisoara and Oradea. Deputy general manager Paul Koch said the company has already bought land in these cities, according to Austrian wire service Medianet. The Bucharest store will be located in Liebrecht&Wood’s retail park on the Bucharest to Pitesti motorway.
• Steel group to build service centre
  Steel group Voestalpine Group is building a steel service centre in Giurgiu, 60 km south of Bucharest, in an 18 million Euro investment. One reason for the steel group choosing the site in Giurgiu was its proximity to the Danube and its waterway transport route to Linz, Austria. Construction will begin in 2008.
• High class hotel chain expands
  Four star hotel chain K+K Hotels will open a second branch in Bucharest in a 20 million Euro investment to be built from the scratch and delivered in 2009. The location, as yet undisclosed, will be in the central region of the capital, close to Piata Universitatii. K+K Hotels opened one four-star hotel near Blvd Carol in 2005.
• Car importer builds HQ
  Car importer of Fiat, Alfa Romeo and SsangYong AutoItalia is building a new showrooom and headquarters on Blvd Timisoara, Bucharest in a ten million Euro investment. The company predicts sales of 16,000 units for 2007 and an increase next year to 20,000.
• New adhesives plant in Campia Turzii
  Henkel Romania last month opened a new construction adhesive plant in Campia Turzii, Cluj county following a ten million Euro investment. The new plant has a production capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year and  is the group’s second production facility in Romania, after its plant in Pantelimon, Ilfov county.

FRANCE

• Energy group enters gas market
  Gaz de France Group will develop the capacity of gas storage operators Depomures and Amgaz in a total investment of 130 million Euro. Gaz de France has completed the acquisition process of 59 per cent in the second largest Romanian gas storage operator Depomures. In Targu Mures, the company operates a natural gas deposit in an exhausted deposit, with a gas capacity of 300 million cubic metres.
• New concrete station for Iasi
  Lafarge Agregate Betoane has poured two million Euro into a new concrete station which it last month opened in Iasi. Officials said the investment will double the production capacity of the Iasi platform, which Lafarge took over in 1999.

GREECE

• Paint producer steps in
  Greek paint producer Druckfarben has invested seven million Euro to open its first plant locally, in Mogosoaia, Ilfov county. The production facility manufactures decorative paints and special inks for packaging and printing houses. The plant will have a production facility of 12,000 tonnes per year.

HUNGARY

• Drug producer goes shopping
  Hungary’s leading drugs producer Gedeon Richter has bought Romanian pharma retail and wholesale group Pharmafarm for an undisclosed sum. The purchase was carried out through the Targu Mures-based Armedica Trading, which Gedeon Richter owns. Pharmafarm operates 14 pharmacies in three Romanian counties. Completion of the transaction is subject to Romanian Competition Commission approval.

ISRAEL

• Leasing firm in second-hand deal
  New Kopel Sixt has entered the second hand cars market, by selling cars which have been subject to the company’s operational leasing and rent-a-car services. Company officials estimated sales of 300 cars by the end of this year and target sales of over 750 in 2008.

PORTUGAL

• Retail group in mall swoop
  Shopping centre developer Sonae Sierra has bought two plots of land in Ploiesti and Craiova for mixed-use centres in a 239 million Euro investment programme. In Ploiesti, the company will invest about 154 million Euro in a 64,000 square metres centre with construction between 2008 and 2010. The 55,500 sqm Craiova complex will be delivered in 2009. The property management division of Sonae Sierra has also taken over Arena Mall Bacau, due to open this month. Last year, Sonae Sierra bought River Plaza Mall, a Ramnicu Valcea-based shopping centre.

SWEDEN

• Deluxe hotel for Poiana Brasov
  Rezidor Hotel Group will open the Radisson Resort Poiana Brasov in the fourth quarter of 2009. The 186-room hotel in the posh ski resort will comprise two restaurants, bar, spa and wellness area and 1,000 sqm conference facilities. During the winter season, the hotel which the Swedish group owns will have an ice-skating ring. Adjacent to the resort is a plan for an 18-hole-golf course. Meanwhile the Radisson SAS Hotel on Bucharest’s Calea Victoriei, which the Swedish group manages, is due to open in March 2008.

TURKEY

• Electronics retailer in branch spree
  Retail subsidiary of the Sabanci Group Teknosa will open between 15 to 20 electrical appliance stores in shopping malls in large cities in Romania next year.  Teknosa bought 51 per cent of the share package of Romanian-based Primex, operator of the household and electrical appliance store Cosmo in 2006. Currently the group has five stores under the Teknosa brand and 45 Cosmo stores. The Turkish retailer aims to invest about 100 million Euro by 2011.
• Superstore keeps Moldavian focus
  Retailer G’Market will open in Bacau this month and plans to open two or three more stores in the north and east of Moldavia in 2008. The store in Bacau stretches over 4,500 sqm with a café, restaurant and pharmacy. The chain has three stores in Bucharest, two in Iasi and one in Focsani and next year plans to open a G’Market in fellow Turk developer Anchor Grup’s plan for a shopping centre in Chisinau.