Kyhn & Hebo Business Digest
A digest of business news involving Nordic players in Eastern Europe and CIS countries
Issue 25, April 17, 2015
BELARUS
aspects of peace and understanding among the
society. Thus, each film featured by the Northern
Lights is about peaceful relations and mutual
understanding between men and women, state
and society, thirst for glory and conscience,
teenagers and outer world, parents and children.
(Source: ejevent.se).
Nordic Film Festival Northern Lights
April 2015, three cities of Belarus and three MIR
Film Theatres will feature the Northern Lights
Nordic Film Festival. All in all, there will be 7 films
screened representing 5 countries, members of
the Nordic Council of Ministers, i.e. Finland,
Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Denmark. Two
films will be introduced by our foreign guests: Jan
Erik Holst, a film scholar from Norway, and Arto
Halonen, a film director from Finland.
TeliaSonera's "daughter" blocks sites critical
of Belarusian government
Best, a company indirectly owned by part state
owned Swedish Finnish telecoms company Telia
Sonera, has had its mobile operator Life block a
number of sites critical towards the Lukashenko
regime in Belarus.
The following films will be featured: Pioneer /
Pionér, 2013 (dir. Erik Skjoldbjærg, Norway); I am
yours / Jeg er din, 2013 (dir. Iram Haq, Norway),
A Patriotic Man / Isänmaallinen mies, 2014 (dir.
Arto Halonen, Finland), They have escaped / He
ovat paenneet (dir. J.-P. Valkeapää, Finland), Paris
of the North / París Norрursins, 2014, (dir.
Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurрsson, Iceland), The
Shooter / Skytten, 2013 (dir. Annette K. Olesen,
Denmark), Hotel / Hotell, 2013 (dir. Lisa Langseth,
Sweden).
This includes the human rights organisation
Vyasna whose site is now inaccessible for Life
clients, says Swedish interest group Östgruppen.
Colients are met be a message that access has
been blocked according to a decree by President
Alexander Lukashenko. In addition, sites
belonging to Chartyja97 and Belaruski Partyzan
have been blocked.
The MIR Film Theatre (vul. Kazlova 4a) will
become the main venue in Minsk. In Homel it will
be also the MIR theatre (vul. Ilijicha 51b) and in
Vitsebsk the MIR theatre as well (vul. Chekhava
3). It is not a coincidence. The theatres’ names
(MIR stands for “peace”) tune in to the festival’s
program featuring films that touch upon various
Life is owned by Best which in its turn is
controlled by Turkish Turkcell where TeliaSonera
owns 38% of the shares. The Swedish
government owns approx. 37% of TeliaSonera.
(Source: Östgruppen).
1
BOSNIA
time, Wizzair is opening a route to Skopje, capital
of Macedonia. Also, the Hungarians and
expanding the frequencies on the existing routes
from Torp to Katowice, Krakow and Vilnius
(Source: varden.no).
Wizzair opens route to Tuzla
In June, Hungarian airliner Wizzair is opening a
brand new route from Torp near Sandefjord (120
km south of Oslo) to Tuzla in Bosnia. At the same
ESTONIA
"We've been conducting checks since 2007 and
what we used to see earlier was a very rising
curve. At the end of 2012 a change took place.
Growth has stopped and a decline has started in
some spheres," Kaskiaro said.
Finnish knitwear maker Nanso to close sock
factory in Tallinn
The Finnish knitwear maker Nanso Grupp has
announced that it will close its sock factory in
Tallinn and lay off 66 workers. The reason for the
closure is a reduction in sales. In the future,
Nanso Grupp will buy socks from foreign
partners, the company said.
According to statistics, 170,000 people work in
the construction sector of Finland and
approximately 10,000 of them are from Estonia
(Source: Äripäev).
Manufacturing activity at the Tallinn plant will
end this fall. The change will affect 66 workers in
Tallinn. The closure of the Tallinn plant will not
affect personnel of the Finnish organization.
Stockmann completes Seppälä sale
Finnish Stockmann retail group signed an
agreement regarding the selling of its subsidiary,
Seppälä Oy, to Seppälä’s CEO Eveliina Melentjeff
and her husband Timo Melentjeff on 1 April 2015.
Established in 1921, Nanso Group Oy is a Finnish
family business that sells underwear, socks and
stockings in the Nordic countries, Central Europe
and Russia. 2014 sales stood at 49.2 million EUR.
The transaction will be completed according to
the memorandum of understanding announced
in a stock exchange release on 2 February 2015.
The transaction covers 82 Seppälä stores in
Finland and 20 in Estonia.
Number of Estonian construction workers in
Finland declining
The share of workers from Estonia on the
construction market of Finland has begun to
decline, a Finnish industry body said.
Seppälä’s revenue in 2014 was EUR 92.6 million
and operating result excluding non-recurring
items was -27.2 million (Source: Stockmann).
Kim Kaskiaro, managing director of the
Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries,
said that while precise figures were not available,
the trend started to change a few years ago.
2
The project includes the reshaping of public areas
and squares including a new market hall and a
new house of culture to replace a building from
the Soviet era. The island of Hiiumaa had a
Swedish speaking population until the late 18th
century and the island was a part of the Swedish
real from 1561 to 1710 (Source: Bornstein
Lyckefors).
Swedish Bornstein Lyckefors Arkitekter win
architectural competition on Hiiumaa
The Swedish architectural bureau Bornstein
Lyckefors has won an international competition
regarding the reshaping of the centre of the town
of Kärdla on the island of Hiiumaa.
Bornstein Lyckefors' winning project for Kärdla.
"Our share on the Estonian housing loan market
is marginal, and large investments would be
necessary in order to improve our position, which
we have decided not to make. DNB Pank fully
honours all its previous agreements and
commitments with our retail customers,"
Kapitovics said.
DNB to stop lending to individuals in Estonia
DNB Pank has announced it will discontinue
offering retail customers loan and deposit
products in the Estonian market following a
decision to focus fully on corporate customers
and increasing its leasing portfolio.
"In corporate banking we have already achieved
remarkable results: we are holding the fourth
position with 7% market share in lending and
10% market share in leasing portfolio. Altogether,
DNB Pank's loan portfolio amounts to 520 million
Ivars Kapitovics, CEO of DBN Pank, said DNB Pank
will focus on its strengths in order to offer good
service to the largest customer groups, or
corporate and leasing customers.
3
euros and almost 14,000 leasing contracts have
been concluded. Our core ability is the thorough
understanding of the needs of corporate
customers and high standards in servicing our
existing and new business and leasing clients,"
the CEO said.
Trafikverket now wants Avies to pay an additional
585,000 SEK for the cancellation of two more
routes as the agreement between Trafikverket
and Avies was cancelled in March (Source:
Travelnews.se).
DNB is one of the largest financial groups in the
Nordic countries and the market leader in
Norway, offering a wide range of products for
both retail and corporate customers. DNB
operates in 18 countries all over the world. DNB's
stocks are listed on Oslo stock exchange and 34%
of the stock belong to the Norwegian
government (Source: DNB).
FinMin lowers 2015 GDP forecast to 2%
Finance Ministry has lowered its gross domestic
product (GDP) growth estimate on Estonia for
this year to 2% from the forecast of 2.5% issued
in the fall.
The Estonian economy is expected to grow by
2.8% in 2016, by 3.4% in 2017, by 3.2% in 2018
and by 3% in 2019, the ministry says.
Bigbank advances in Finland & Sweden
CPI inflation is seen to stay low at 0.2% this year,
then accelerate to 2.2% in 2016 and to 2.7% in
2017. In the fall forecast the ministry expected
inflation to hit 1.9% in 2015 and 2.5% in 2016.
By the end of 2014, Estonian consumer baniking
group had 15,000 loan contracts in Finland and
7,000 in Sweden (Source: Big Bank).
Netel takes over parts of Finnish Teolog
The rate of unemployment is expected to drop to
6.1% this year, to 5.8% in 2016 and to 5.5% the
year after that. The forecast in the fall suggested
a reduction in the jobless rate to 6.8% this year
and to 6% in 2016.
Swedish broadband, power and telecom
networks builder Netel has taken over the Finnish
colleague Teolog, thus gaining a foothold in
Estonia. The previous owners of Telog have
retained shares in the company. Netel is 60%
owned by Danish investment fund Axcel (Source:
Telog).
The average wage is seen to rise by 4.6% in 2015,
by 3% next year and by 3.2% in 2017.
Exports are estimated to rise by 2.8% in 2015 and
by 4% in 2016. Export growth is then expected to
accelerate to 5.2% in 2017 (Source:
Rahandusministeerium).
Swedes demand 585,000 SEK from Avies
Estonian airline Avies has already paid 1.3m SEK
to the Swedish government for cancelled
domestic flights. The Swedish traffic authority
4
Estonian Air supplies aircraft capacity
for SAS
Estonian Air was once majority owned by SAS and
the companies have long since code shred on
various Baltic routes to and from Tallinn - this is
all common knowledge to most readers. But
during March Estonian Air has also supplied a
CRJ-900 for SAS, primarily for the CopenhagenGothenburg route, but the plane has also been
deployed on routes to Stuttgart, Helsinki and
Birmingham (Source: Cotra).
Estonian's CRJ-900. Planespotters.net
GEORGIA
Denmark to increase support
to Georgia
so that Georgians can travel more freely iin
Europe.
Denmark's foreign minister Martin Lidegaard is
worried about increasing visible Russian activities
in Georgia where stability would benefit
Denmark. He is thinking of demonstrations
against Georgia's nearing to the EU and against
the rights of homosexuals.
"The Georgians realise that the door to the EU is
not open. But it is very important that the door
isn't closed, either," says Lidegaard to Ritzau
(Source: Ritzau).
On a recent visit to Georgia together with the
foreign ministers of Sweden and Poland, he said
that he is happy that Georgia has chosen the
European way, which will be an inspiration to
many other countries that are seeking a stable
democracy. The minsters are in Georgia to
prepare a summit in Latvia for the countries in
EU's Eastern partnership.
Denmark promises to continue its support for
reforms in the Georgian judiciary where
transparency is still needed. Also, Denmark hopes
to assist Georgia in opening up its energy sector.
Lidegaard says that an actual EU membership is
not in sight, but that Georgia hopes for a visa
agreement at the summit in Riga on 21-22 May
5
Previous page: Abies nordmanniana - Nordmann
or Caucasian fir - a favourite for Christmas trees
as it does not drop its needles. Georgia is the
tree's home turf. Picture: skovdyrkerne.dk
Bols and her husband Lars started importing
Nordmann fir (also called Caucasian fir) seeds
from Georgia and their company, Bols
Forstplanteskole, has continued cooperation with
the country since then. The address of the
consulate is; Consulat of Georgia, Løvetvej 30,
DK-8740 Brædstrup. Phone +45 7576 0043 and
mail [email protected]
New Georgian consul in Jutland and Funen
Marianne Bols has been appointed new honorary
consul of the Republic of Georgia with jurisdiction
in Jutland and on Funen. Back in 198 Marianne
LATVIA
Danish–Latvian WOOD TRADE EVENT
Program:
Meet companies from the wood business at the
Embassy of Latvia in Copenhagen on 28 April
from 11.30 to 14.00.
11.00 Arrival and Refreshments
11.20 How can the Embassy / LIAA assist? Ivars
Zukovskis, Trade Attache
At the trade event, you will have an opportunity
to establish new business contacts with
companies from the forest products industry. A
group of up to 10 Latvian wood processing
companies (sawmills, wood pellets producers,
timber traders) will join us at the event. During
the event, there will be networking possibilities,
as the Latvian companies would like to examine
possibilities of expanding mutually beneficial
cooperation with Danish counterparts. In your
reply to this invitation, you are welcome to
identify company profiles you would be
interested in having B2B meetings. For the
preliminary list of participants, please see
Program below.
11.30 Presentation by (TBC)*
12.30 Lunch and networking
13.00 B2B meetings & matchmaking. The
participants from Latvia have considerable
experience in doing business in Scandinavia. At
the event, there will be woodworking companies
with annual sales of EUR 15-60 million,
including**:
- AKZ, one of the largest softwood sawmills in
Latvia; products: timber products and biofuels
(wood pellets, chips)
- Sveaskog Baltfor, one of the leading timber
trade companies in Latvia
The event is free of charge (registration is
required); the Embassy will provide sandwiches
and refreshments.
- Kurzemes Granulas, a wood pellet producer
with capacity of 70,000 tons per year
- NewFuels, a wood pellet producer with capacity
of 145,000 tons per year
6
- SBE Latvia, a wood pellet producer with capacity
of 70,000 tons per year
Yvonne Ruwaida, state secretary of Åsa Romson,
Sweden's minister for the climate and the
environment, visited Riga on April 14-15 in order
to take part of the informal environment
ministers' meeting as a part of Latvia's EU
presidency.
- Rettenmeier Baltic Timber, a wood processing
company producing sawn goods, glued panels,
etc.
- Latgranula, a wood pellet producer with
capacity of 30,000 tons per year
Three Latvian companies to nest in Malmö
incubator
- IKEA Industry Incukalns, a wood processing
company in Latvia; products: timber products and
wood pellets.
Three Latvian companies are the first companies
to take advantage of the international pilot
program Trampoline of the Malmö-based
incubator Minc. In May, Latvian companies
Koatum, Nanooptometrics and Snowision will join
the incubator program (Source: 8till5.se)
- others (invitation process is still open)
*Possible presentations by Dong Energy/ Dansk
Energi / State of Green / industry organizations
Pilots accuse Icelandic Primera Air of social
dumping
**subject to change
The European pilots association ECA, accuses the
Icelandic airline Primera Air of social dumping.
Primera Air set up a daughter company called
Primera Air Nordic in Latvia last August.
According to Danish air media check-in.dk the
company has moved two of its eight Boeing 737800 and 700 planes from Denmark to Latvia and
in February it closed its service centre in
Stockholm after the staff had turned down the
company's offer of a plus 20% wage reduction
and increase in workload.
State secretary Yvonne Ruwaida to visit Riga
Primera Air is owned by Icelandic Primera Travel
group that also owns the Danish package tour
operator Bravo Tours (Source: Finansnyt & checkin.dk).
Yvonne Ruwaida
Photo: Kristian Pohl/ Regeringskansliet
7
LITHUANIA
development to be able to offer our customers
data centre capacity as private, hybrid and public
cloud solutions also in the Baltics. Baltneta is
today selling its solutions primarily to the SMB
segment, and Atea therefore sees good crossselling possibilities to the current customer base,
which is primarily in the larger enterprise and
public segments.
Skandia to move 55-70 jobs to Lithuania
Swedish life insurer Skandia will be moving 55-70
jobs from Sweden to Vilnius. The company will
start a daughter company in Vilnius for the
activities there, which will be administrative only.
The employees will have no customer contact
and Skandia has no plans of starting insurance
activities in Lithuania.
Atea has acquired 100% of the shares from the
Kazickas family and management. All
management team members and key employees
will continue in Atea.
The job losses will affect Gothenburg, Stockholm
and Sundsvall. The aim is to save money on
salaries and property rent. The move is to be
completed by Q1 2016 (Source: Arbetet).
The agreed enterprise value is MEUR 10.4 (MNOK
90.3). The transaction was approved by the
Lithuanian competition authorities and has
entered into effect (Source: Atea).
Atea acquires leading cloud and outsourcing
provider in the Baltics
On April 9, Norway's Atea entered into
agreement to acquire UAB Baltnetos
Komunikacijos (Baltneta), which is a leading cloud
and IT outsourcing provider in Lithuania.
Lithuanian criticism of Norway
Decisions by Norwegian authorities to forcible
remove Lithuanian children living in Norway from
the parents have meant that Norway has been
met by a storm of criticism in Lithuania. A
Lithuanian TV show has even stated that Norway
is the most inbred country in the world. It has so
far that Norway's ambassador in Vilnius has been
forced to hiring a PR company in order to remedy
Norway's reputation in Lithuania (Source:
Sveriges Radio).
Baltneta is the leading cloud and IT outsourcing
provider in Lithuania. The company has the
highest certified datacenter in Lithuania, in which
there is still significant vacant capacity. The
company's 120 employees and the datacenter
facilities are located in Vilnius.
Since its establishment in 1996 the company has
had a successful growth track record, and now
has a very solid contract base containing more
than 3,000 customers. The company delivered
revenue of MEUR 7.2 (MNOK 62.5) and EBITDA of
MEUR 1.9 (MNOK 16.5) in the fiscal year ending
31 December 2014, and is expected to deliver
revenue of MEUR 8.3 (MNOK 72.1) and EBITDA of
MEUR 2.2 (MNOK 19.1) in 2015.
byMagMalou made in Lithuania
Marthe Kveli Valeberg has since 2009 supplied
the sophisticated female audience in Oslo with
fashion products, styling and makeup. Now she
has starter up her own fashion brand,
byMagMaLou, and production has been located
in Lithuania after a stint in Turkey where the
founder says she was conned by a sleazy agent
(Source: IN Magasinet).
Cloud is a strategic business area for Atea, and it
is therefore an important step in our
8
POLAND
Danish- Polish bilateral agreement
Norway's Selvaag Gruppen cuts down in
Poland
On April 13, Danish foreign minister Martin
Lidegaard and his Polish counterpart Grzegorz
Schetyna signed an agreement in order to beef
up bilateral cooperation.
Norway's reat estate developer group Selvaag
Gruppen aims to concentrate on Oslo more in its
future investments, writes Norway's
Estatenyheter. Selvaag Gruppen had net income
of 3.7bn NOK made profits to the tune of 234m
NOK (Source: Estatenyheter.no).
The agreement aims at achieving better results in
bilateral cooperation within, politics, security
policy, environment and energy, city
development, innovative and creative industries,
R&D, agriculture and the digital area (Source:
Danish FM).
SAS angry over rebates for Ryanair on
competing routes
Traditional national carriers like SAS are under
great pressure from low-cost airlines - this is no
surprise to anyone. As Ireland's low-cost giant
Ryanair started up at Copenhagen recently, the
airport drew the wrath of SAS because Ryanair
had been granted much lower airport taxes on
routes competing directly with SAS' own, e. g. on
the Warsaw-Copenhagen connection where
Ryanair now offers tickets much cheaper than
SAS.
Grzegorz Schetyna, Poland's foreign minister.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Danish-Polish agreement on worker posting
Copenhagen Airport replies that Ryanair isn't
getting any discounts that SAS, Norwegian, or
other companies have not also enjoyed when
they are starting up new routes.
On April 9, the Danish minister for Employment
Henrik dam Kristensen and his Polish counterpart
signed an agreement aimed at clarifying issues
concerning the posting of workers. The
agreement means that companies that post
workers must in fact be established in the
country where they claim that they are from.
"Our job is not to make SAS grow, but to secure
the growth for the airport," says Peter
Krogsgaard from Copenhagen Airport to the
media (Source: Fædrelandsvennen).
The two countries will also strengthen the
exchange of information and strengthen
cooperation between authorities in relation to
9
the posting regulation. A joint committee has
been appointed that will monitor the application
of the new agreement. The government says it
has started a "dialogue" with Latvia and Slovakia
for similar agreements (Source: LO, Danish
congress of trade unions).
NCC opens posting bureau in Poland
The Danish division of Swedish builder NCC has
opened a posting bureau in order to take control
of the process of attracting employees to Danish
building sites.
Giant Sandvik front loader for open mining.
Photo: Wikipedia.
NCC's Martin Manthorpe says to DR that it is a
question of having the resources to getting 50 to
200 people to Denmark on a short notice.
The key witness for the prosecution was Andrzej
Jagiello who has head of Sandvik Mining and
Construction in Poland until 2011. In March 2014,
Mr Jagiello, however, committed suicide in a
hotel room in Katowice.
The new Polish company is called NCC Montage
(Source: dr.dk).
Local politicians in Sandvik's home town
Sandviken and representatives of trade unions
strongly condemn corrupt practices while local
media ask: How much did Sandvik's management
know?
Ryanair to start up Oslo-Szczecin
Ryanair's 2015/16 winter schedules features one
new route for Norway: A connection between
Oslo Rygge and Szczecin (Source: Boarding.no).
Sandvik at the centre of Polish corruption
trial
The corruption case is being tried in Poland right
now and a former sales director from Sandvik is
among the accused (Source Gefle Dagblad).
Swedish Sandvik is at the centre of a corruption
trial regarding corruption in the Polish mining
sector. A former sales manager at Sandvik Mining
and Construction in Poland, is believed to have
paid out more then SEK 25m in bribes to Polish
mining executives in the understanding that
Sandvik would win contracts.
Prinsesse Benedikte ready in July
German Scandlines' ferry Prinsesse Benedikte,
which was damaged during a stay at the Polish
yard Remontowa in Gdansk, will be ready for
deployment in July, says Scandlines. The ferry
normally traffics the Rødby-Puttgarden route
between Denmark and Germany (Source: Det
Maritime Danmark).
10
HQ of Denmark's First Farms in Eastern Romania
ROMANIA
the present 11,500 sows, which DCH
International has in East Romania
FirstFarms A/S expands in Eastern Romania
FirstFarms A/S and DCH International A/S have
signed a letter of intent for the purpose of
FirstFarms to take over the operation of owned
and leased land belonging to DCH International in
Eastern Romania.
The operation of the land will be merged with
FirstFarms’ existing center in East Romania.
- It fits very well into our strategy to operate
approx. 10,000 hectares in the region in the long
term, says CEO Anders H. Nørgaard, FirstFarms
A/S.
The intent is that FirstFarms leases 400 hectares
and takes over the leasehold of 1,700 hectares
from DCH International with effect from
September 2015.
With the expansion FirstFarms will have approx.
5,400 hectares in East Romania.
Furthermore, at the same time FirstFarms takes
over the modern machine park, which today is
used to operate the land.
For DCH International A/S the agreement means
that focus will be completely on the pig
production in the future.
The agreement also entail that FirstFarms in
future purchases and is responsible for delivery
of the slurry from the pig production based on
- We will do what we do best and focus on
growth within this area, explains CEO Lars V.
Drescher, DCH International A/S.
11
He states that there has been a better return on
the invested capital in the company’s pig
production.
Danish haulier gets massive fine for not
paying Romanian driver
A Danish haulier from Southern Jutland has been
fined 101,500 DKK for not paying his Romanian
driver during his training period. The court found
that the Romanian driver was the driver of the
lorry and his driver's license should have been
inserted in the control mechanism - which it was
not. The Dane operated his haulier company
through a Lithuanian company and had one
Romanian driver in training as well as one
employed (Source: Lastbilsmagasinet).
Both Anders H. Nørgaard and Lars V. Drescher
points out that the two companies in the future
will work closely together in regards to the
delivery of slurry.
- It is also likely that we will trade crops with each
other, they say.
By the letter of intent it appears that all trades
between the parties shall be on market terms.
Even Romania short on software developers
It is also clear that they are now working further
on due diligence and then the final contracts for
the execution of the agreement – expected in the
autumn 2015 (Source: First Farms).
Danish Computerworld magazine writes that
Eastern Europe is no longer an abundance of
software programmers. The magazine quotes
ZDNet that it is even relatively hard to get
software programmers in Romania. Labour and
able minds are still available in in countries such
as Ukraine and Bangladesh (Source:
Computerworld).
RUSSIA
The Carlsberg CEO adds that despite these
setbacks, Carlsberg has no plans of giving up its
business in Russia. "Just at the moment it is in no
need of investment and the lack of investments is
still a bad indicator for us and for the industry as
a whole." (Source: Vedomosti).
Unpredictability Russia's greatest problem
Unpredictability is Russia's greatest problem says
Carlsberg's outgoing CEO Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen
in an interview with Russia's business newspaper
Vedomosti
Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen supplies hard criticism of
the state regulation of the beer market that has
not only limited the places where you are
allowed to sell beer, but also has increased taxes
on beer six-fold in five years. Buhl Rasmussen
says that this has made the market drop by 30%
and 100,000 jobs have been lost in the breweries
industry and adjoining industries.
Russia blocks Swedish director's Hollywood
thriller day before its release
Russia on April scrapped the release of a new
Hollywood movie, Child 44 by Swedish director
Daniel Espinosa, just a day before it was to open,
write Associated Press. Russia's culture minister
says it insulted the nation by describing it as "a
sort of Mordor."
12
"Child 44" is a mystery thriller featuring a Soviet
policeman investigating a series of grisly child
murders in 1953. Its stars include Tom Hardy and
Gary Oldman.
(GMP), and is located in Technopark Grabtsevo in
the Kaluga region of Russia.
"The manufacturing facility in Kaluga is a sign of
our long-term commitment to people with
diabetes in Russia, where close to 10 million
people have the disease according to local
studies. With our investment in local
manufacturing, we ensure availability of highquality modern insulins to the people with
diabetes in Russia who rely on our products every
day," said Lars Rebien Sørensen, CEO of Novo
Nordisk.
This is the first and only greenfield facility for the
manufacturing of modern insulin in Russia.
Environmental targets for CO² emission, water
consumption and use of energy have been
established. With the construction of the new
facility, Novo Nordisk has so far created around
150 new jobs.
Joseph Stalin, aka Uncle Joe, dictator and semigod of the Soviet Union from the late 1920'es
until 1953. Responsible for millions of mass
murders, but still a controversial character in
Russia today.
The ministry said it made a joint decision with the
film's Russian distributor not to release it after
hearing complaints concerning "distortion of
historic facts and wilful interpretation of events
... as well as images and characters of Soviet
citizens."
"The opening of Novo Nordisk manufacturing
facility in Kaluga is a sign of confidence in our
region, as well as an important stage in the
formation of a pharmaceutical cluster in Kaluga. I
am convinced that the new facility will have a
significant impact on improving the quality of life
for people with diabetes in Kaluga as well as in
the rest of Russia," said Kaluga Region Governor,
Anatoly Artamonov.
The minister says to the media that the film
insults a country that has just won a great war
and was getting ready to send the first human
into space (Source: Associated Press).
Novo Nordisk also has production sites in
Denmark, Brazil, China, France and the US
(Source: Novo Nordisk).
Novo Nordisk opens new insulin formulation
and filling facility in Russia
Uhrenholt Russia and Espersen cooperate
On April 10, Denmark's Novo Nordisk opened a
new manufacturing facility in Russia for
formulation and filling of modern insulin for the
treatment of diabetes. The production will cover
both Penfill® cartridges and FlexPen® prefilled
insulin injection pens for the Russian market.
We are happy to announce the start of
cooperation between two Danish food companies
– Uhrenholt and Espersen – in Russia.
From December 2014 the companies started joint
project on production of seafood in vacuum pack
under EMBORG brand.
The new facility will be operating in accordance
with current Good Manufacturing Practices
13
The Espersen plant in Velikiy Novgorod will
supply North-Atlantic shrimps, Mussel meat from
the Pacific Ocean, Scallop fillet and Frutti di Mare
seafood mix. High production standards on
Espersen plant and excellent quality of raw
material controlled by Uhrenholt specialists will
guarantee premium quality of new EMBORG
products (Source: Uhrenholt.com)
when they expire. Nordea cites poor profitability
for the loans as the reason.
Stockmann to close 3 department stores and
19 Lindex shops
At the AGM on April 10, the Swedish listed oil
company Petrogrand saw its entire board let go
and not long after the CEO, Maks Grinfeld, was
also history. The dramatic AGM came after a
prolonged battle between ownership interests in
the company propelled by a cross ownership with
Shelton Petroleum. At the AGM, the Swedish
owners of Shelton, Rosenqvist Gruppen, emerged
victorious along with Nassay-based Appointed
Board, a third party attracted by the low share
price in Petrogrand as a consequence of the
infighting. The new chairman of the board is the
lawyer Cheddi Liljeström from Delphi Law offices.
He represented both Rosenqvist and Appointed
Board at the AGM. NEW CEO is Dmitry Zubatyuk
whose deputy is Sven-Eric Zachrisson who had
both been elected to the board at the AGM
(Source: Aktieägarna).
Also, Nordea also will close down its retail
banking net in Russia which counts 16 offices and
corporate clients will be (Source: Dagens
Nyheter, Realtid).
Petrogrand's board and CEO sacked
Stockmann is planning to close down three lossmaking department stores located in Mega
shopping centres in the Moscow region in Russia.
The aim is to close down the stores by the end of
2016, after which Stockmann would focus in
Russia on its two remaining Moscow department
stores located closer to the city centre and on the
stores in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg.
Due to the insecure outlook for the retail market
in Russia, Lindex is also planning to close down its
stores in Russia. The fashion chain currently has
19 stores in Russia. Lindex will focus on
strengthening its operations in its main markets
and expanding in other markets.
The closures of the department stores alone will
mean that Stockmann will reduce its Russian staff
by 700, but in addition to this Stockmann has
recently reported that it aims to reduce the
number of employees in its support functions by
420, of which 160 in Russia (Source: Stockmann
and Habit).
Russian border crossing plummet
Border traffic on the border between Norway and
Russia has plummeted during the past year. In
the first three months, 58,000 border crossing
have been registered, a drop of 28% compared to
2014. The drop represents a hard blow to retail in
Kirkenes and Sørvaranger municipality in
northernmost Norway.
Nordea ends private lending in Russia,
closes retail office network
Swedish promotion in Pskov
Swedish Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordics,
has decided to stop private lending in Russia. The
issued 6.6bn EUR equivalents in credits are
mostly corporate credits, but the 300 million EUR
credits to private lenders will not be prolonged
Sweden's Consul General in St Petersburg Erik
Hammarskjöld and a number of staff visited
Pskov on March 23-25 to participate in the local
Swedish Day. The program included a meeting
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with the governor Andrei Turchak, a visit to the
special economic zone ”Moglino” and with the
Swedish company Bonnier Business Press. The
consul general also met with Swedish students
and teachers at Pskov State University and visited
Pskovs linguistic high school.
Almost all of the 470 Russians on Svalbard are
employees of Artikugol (Source: Affärer i Norr).
On March 23, the new visa centre was opened
and on March 24, the consulate general
participated in the opening of the Swedish
Russian photo exhibition Access Ability featuring
works of Swedish photographer Markus Marcetic
as well as Russians Alexei Kostromin and Olga
Balobejko. On March 25, the consulate general
took part in the opening of the Swedish dramatic
arts week "Swedish Spring", a Swedish-Russian
cooperation project within Creative Force
supported by the Swedish Institute.
A fjord on Svalbard.
Swedish listed Russian gold minor Auriant
reshuffles management
Auriant Mining has appointed a new acting CEO,
Sergei Baykalov, and a new Chief Geologist.
Auriant Mining AB, is a Swedish junior mining
company focused on gold exploration and
production in Russia, primarily in Zabaikalye and
the Republics of Khakassia and Tyva. The
company has currently four assets, including two
operating mines (Tardan and Solcocon) one early
stage exploration asset and one development
asset. The group’s mineral licenses are estimated
to contain official Russian State Reserves
Committee (GKZ) reserves of 829 500, 000 troy
ounces (1 oz = 31.1 g) in the C1 and C2 categories
and 500,000 troy ounces in NI 43-101 standard.
Since July 19, 2010, Auriant Mining´s shares are
traded on First North Premier at the NASDAQ
OMX Nordic Exchange under the short name AUR
(Source: Auriant Mining).
Bruzaholms Bruk cuts back on Russian
uncertainty
The steel products foundry Bruzaholms Bruk in
Bruzaholm in Southern Sweden is laying off its
third shift and cutting down staff by 25 from the
present 80.
In 2014, the company saw increasing sales most
importantly in Russia, but uncertainties as to the
market situation there has made the company
cut back on staff (Source: Smålands-Tidningen).
More Russian tourism in Svalbard
Russian coal mining company Artikugol in the
cohabited Norwegian Svalbard archipelago has
began to bring in more tourists from Russia to
Svalbard.
Russian conscripts marching while singing
"Barbie Girl"
During 2014 the company had 10 groups with a
total of 100 Russian tourists and Artikugol
opened a tourist cam in Norway's Longyearbyen
as well as with hotels in the Russian town
Barentsburg and the mining town Pyramiden.
A video has been is shown on state-owned
Russian media Russia Today's platform depicting
Russian conscripts marching and singing to the
1997 megahit "Barbie Girl" by Danish-Norwegian
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pop group Aqua. It is not known whether Aqua is
pressing for compensation for breach of
intellectual property rights by the Russian army
(Source: Danish TV2).
The concept of slow TV, which has been
developed by state-owned NRK in Norway, has
been a relative success in Russia. Already, Russian
TV stations have shown the show Bergensbanen
(depicting all of a train ride from Oslo to Bergen)
and edited version of Hurtigruten (the original
depicts 134 hours of sailing from Bergen to
Kirkenes) (Source: Aftenposten).
Norway's slow TV hits in Russia
UKRAINE
East Capital buys back Ukrainian minister's
shares
Giant fine for dairy farmer after using
Ukrainian labour
The 237,000 shares that Lithuanian citizen and
East Capital co-owner Aivaras Abromavicius
received from the East Capital Explorer Fund in
December 2014 when he was appointed minister
of economy and trade in the Ukrainian
government, has been bought back by East
Capital (Nyhetsbyrån Direkt).
Dairy farmer Jette Jacobsen from Vojens in
Denmark has been fined 800,000 DKK for
misusing foreign labour on her farm. She has
been fined for two counts; one is that she let a
Ukrainian farming student work 39 instead of 37
hours a week. The student received pay for the
full 39 hours, she was just not allowed to work
more than 37 hours per week. Politicians from
Danish Liberal party Venstre is now enquiring the
government whether this is a correct practise.
The Danish agriculture organisation Landbrug &
Fødevarer have called the fines completely out of
proportion (Source: Ekstra-Bladet & DR).
Impressum
Kyhn & Hebo Business Digest is published in Copenhagen by Kyhn & Hebo, Copenhagen.
Tel +45 4053 9529.
Subscriptions: Hans Hebo [email protected]. Contents: Peter Kyhn [email protected].
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Contact Hans Hebo at +45 4053 9529.
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