Telecommunications Office Received Over SKK 40 Mln. over H1 2003
The Telecommunications Office (TU), the regulator of the Slovak telecommunications market, received SKK 40.7 million from fees paid by all holders of licenses for telecommunications activities during the first half of 2003. The income from licenses is an income of the state budget. During the January-June period the office issued 13 licenses for providing telecommunications services or building public telecommunications networks. It also issued two verdicts on preliminary conditions for providing telecommunications services. TU spokesman Roman Vavro informed SITA on Thursday.
Home Credit Slovakia with SKK 977 Mln. Turnover in H1 2003
Home Credit Slovakia, a company providing installment sale financing, reported a turnover of above SKK 977 million in six months of 2003. This is an increase of 14.5 percent compared with the same period of the previous year. „The market of installment sale financing reports a constant growing trend, when it posted a year-on-year increase by over 10 percent,“ said Stanislav Vlasak from the Home Credit Slovakia’s marketing department. White and black goods remain to be the most often goods purchased this way.
BEZ Transformatory Earned Profit of SKK 3.8 Mln. in 2002
Producer of transformers BEZ Transformatory, a.s. Bratislava, closed last year with a profit of SKK 3.8 million. Compared with the previous year the company improved its earnings by over SKK 3 million. The company reached an operating profit of SKK 1.2 million while the financial operations brought losses of SKK 1.8 million. A profit of SKK 4.5 million from special activities contributed to the company’s final earnings, BEZ Transformatory announced on Thursday.
Construction Work Prices Expected to Rise after Slovakia Enters EU
On the basis of the so-far development and expected increase in costs as well as a growth of the added-value tax (VAT) by 5 percentage points to 19 percent, the Ministry of Construction and Regional Development expects that prices of construction works would increase in 2004. This development will continue also after Slovakia enters the European Union, head of ministry’s construction section Anton Novotny informed SITA.
Slovakia’s Gross Foreign Debt Up to USD 14.19 Bln. in April
According to preliminary data from the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), the total gross foreign debt of the Slovak Republic was USD 14.19 billion at the end of April 2003, up from the March drop to USD 13.811 billion. The debt rose USD 379.6 million over April alone when total long-term as well as short-term liabilities reported an increase, the NBS informed SITA on Thursday.
SMER Criticizes Pension Insurance Reform
Opposition party SMER criticizes the planned introduction of the capitalization pillar of pension insurance reform. The future private saving pension system does not guarantee higher pensions, moreover it involves a risk of loosing money deposited into the system, Viera Tomanova, SMER shadow labor minister said at a press conference on Thursday. According to her, the draft bill on old-age pension savings, submitted last week by the Labor Ministry, introduces an expensive system, which will have a negative effect on the government economy. She also pointed out the risk of increasing the retirement age to 62 years stipulated by the draft social insurance bill and increased payments into pension insurance funds from the current 28 percent to 28.5 percent of the gross monthly wage.
Komercni Banka Bratislava with H1 Net Earnings of SKK 22.5 Mln.
Komercni Banka Bratislava, a.s. (KBB) closed the first half of this year with net earnings at SKK 22.5 million compared with SKK 25.5 million it reported a year ago. Its net interest revenues amounted to SKK 69.5 million, while net revenues from fees and provisions stood at SKK 6.7 million. The bank made a profit from financial operations at SKK 14.3 million, according to data disclosed by the bank.
Credit Lyonnais Bank in Slovakia Reports H1 Profit of SKK 12.2 Mln.
Credit Lyonnais Bank Slovakia, a.s., reported a profit of SKK 12.2 million in the first half of 2003. It closed the same period of last year with a profit of SKK 34.5 million. Net interest revenues of the bank reached SKK 77.1 million and net revenues from fees and commissions were SKK 7.8 million. General bank operating costs amounted to SKK 73 million, according to data disclosed by Credit Lyonnais Bank Slovakia.
STV Reduced Its Loss in H1 2003 to SKK 31.7 Mln.
Public service Slovak Television (STV) reduced its loss by SKK 66.5 million y/y to SKK 31.7 million in H1 2003. Over the monitored period STV reported revenues totaling SKK 985 million and costs at SKK 1.017 billion, announced Branislav Zahradnik, STV crisis management member.
Social Partners Debate Green Report for 2002
The Slovak agricultural sector reported positive results last year, when as a whole it reached a profit of SKK 474 million. This results from a so-called Green report, with which the Social Partnership Council (RHDS) dealt on Thursday. But according to the submitter of the report, Agriculture Minister Zsolt Simon, the situation in the sector has significantly changed since the start of the year. Farmers have begun calculating drought damage, impacts of tax reforms and low sales of several key agro commodities. Thus, the ministry is preparing new complex material on the current agriculture situation with a calculation of all damages. He added that state aid to affected farmers is exclusively in the hands of the cabinet.
Whirlpool Slovakia Ended H1 2003 with SKK 4.4 Bln. Turnover
Whirlpool Slovakia, household appliance producer, reached turnover of SKK 4.46 billion over H1 2003. In its Poprad-based plant the company produced a total of 643,780 automatic washing machines worth SKK 4.35 billion, Ladislav Pacovsky, company economic director informed SITA.
Recycling Fund Threatens Economic Competition, Claim Businessmen
There are serious functional shortcomings in the Slovak Recycling Fund, which pose a threat to healthy economic competition, claims the Slovak Business Alliance (PAS), stating that the Fund has no recourse to introduce sanctions against non payers. Naturally, this results in the fact that many companies avoid paying. „Thus an opportunity for exploitation is created for those market participants who are failing to fulfill their duty, over and above those who abide by the law. Even the top Fund officials admitted this, but no improvement has so far been made,“ said board of directors‘ member Milan Kisztner in the statement from the alliance.
Kosice to Use Its Forest Assets as Collateral
Kosice city council has decided to use its over 18,000 hectare forest as collateral against a bank loan. Originally it wanted to sell the forest to raise funds to cover its debt. Thus the council will take a bridging loan of SKK 351 million and use forest assets of SKK 3.8 billion as collateral. All rightist council deputies voted for this proposal. At the June session they turned down the proposal and attempted to offer banks other assets as collateral.
Slovak Crown Gains SKK 0.10 Against Euro on Thursday
On Thursday, during trading on the foreign exchange market the Slovak currency firmed about SKK 0.10 against its referential euro. The Slovak crown opened at 42.090/42.150 SKK/EUR in the morning and according to Bibiana Valachova, Tatra Banka dealer, during a nervous and aggressive trading session the exchange rate of the Slovak crown and the euro even touched the level of 42.010/ 42.060 SKK/EUR. She ascribed the firming of the Slovak crown mainly to trends on regional FOREX markets, also experiencing the firming of the Czech crown. „Subsequently, however, the Slovak crown returned to the SKK 42.050/42.100 SKK/EUR level and nearly stayed at this level for the whole day,“ she added. At the end of the trading day, however, some banks closed their positions and by purchasing foreign exchanges they slightly weakened the Slovak currency quoted at 42.100/420.150 SKK/EUR.
S&P Withdraws Slovenske Elektrarne’s Rating on its Request
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced on Thursday it has withdrawn its ‚BB+‘ foreign currency corporate credit rating on Slovenske Elektrarne a.s. (SE), the chief power generation company in Slovakia. The rating was withdrawn at the request of Slovenske Elektrarne. The company is undergoing corporate and financial restructuring and has no debt rated.
MONEY MARKET: Banks Continue Sterilizing Excess Liquidity in NBS
Commercial banks deposited SKK 20.579 billion in their reserve accounts in the central bank, meeting the minimum reserve requirement on a cumulative basis at 101.4 percent as of Thursday. The liquidity surplus persisted in the banking sector as a consequence of low demand from banks in the central bank’s sterilization repo tender on Tuesday, as well as the government bond auction on Monday. „Commercial banks sterilized about SKK 6 billion through one-day transactions with the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS),“ ING Bank dealer Martin Koska informed SITA. He expects the liquidity surplus in the sector to reduce after the sterilization repo tender by the central bank and T-Bill auction, due to be held next week.
Wustenrot Group is New Owner of UBP Insurance Company
The new 100 percent owners of Univerzalna Bankova Poistovna (UBP), a.s., Bratislava have became the companies Wustenrot, Zivotna Poistovna, a.s. Bratislava and Wustenrot Versicherungs-AG Salzburg on the basis of a contract signed by current shareholders on Thursday. After meeting the remaining contract terms of the transaction and share transfer, Wustenrot, Zivotna Poistovna will receive 52 percent of UBP shares with the remaining 48 percent going to Wustenrot Versicherungs-AG. UBP and Wustenrot are due to merge in January next year under the trade name Wustenrot insurance company, a.s.
STOCK MARKET: Slovakofarma Pushes SAX Index Up to 162.09 Points
Shares of pharmaceutical maker Slovakofarma firmed the SAX official share index by 0.38 percent, or 0.61 percentage points to 162.09 points on Thursday. Turnover on the Bratislava Stock Exchange (BCPB) decreased from SKK 693.1 million on Wednesday to SKK 188.3 million on Thursday with as much as SKK 161.3 million in share trading. Shares of project design firm Dopravoprojekt saw lively trading in off-market transactions on Thursday with 53.38 percent of the company’s share capital changing hands.
Wustenrot Group Plans to Buy Remaining Stake in VUB Wustenrot
The Wustenrot group is planning to buy 50 percent of shares in housing construction savings bank VUB Wustenrot, a.s. from Vseobecna Uverova Banka (VUB) as soon as possible, Helmut Geier, chairman of the board of directors at Wustenrot Versicherungs-AG told a news conference on Thursday. The conference was dedicated to a 100-percent stake takeover of insurer Univerzalna Bankova Poistovna, a.s. The remaining share of the housing construction savings bank is in the hands of Wustenrot Verwaltungs und Dienstleistungen, Salzburg (30 percent) and German Wustenrot & Wurtembergische, Stuttgart.
Pavol Hrusovsky Inspects Agricultural Drought Damage
Speaker of Parliament Pavol Hrusovsky visited several agricultural companies on Thursday in the Trnava, Trencin and Zilina regions to inspect damages caused by the adverse weather conditions, Stanislav Nemec, Slovak Agriculture and Food Inspection (SPPK) spokesman informed SITA. Mr. Hrusovsky said that, in cooperation with SPPK, the Agriculture Ministry is monitoring damages caused by drought and other negative factors. According to him, preliminary results demonstrated that due to the adverse weather conditions the average crop per hectare would be about 20-25 percent lower.