ZF News

Pension funds “save” 6m euros through random client distribution

Managers of mandatory private pensions (2nd pillar) got around 330,000 clients “for free” from the random distribution of people working their first job who have not chosen the pension fund they want to contribute to, according to data of the Private Pensions Supervisory Commission (CSSPP). For these clients pension managers have not paid any commission to marketing agents (who attract participants). Considering that the commission paid to one agent is around 20 euros, pension managers saved around 6.6 million euros. From the launch of the mandatory private pensions system at the end of 2007, managers spent tens of millions of euros in the form of commissions to attract new clients. According to CSSPP data, from the beginning of this year until the end of November over 309,000 people were randomly distributed by the National Pensions House (which manages the Romanian public pensions system), with another around 20,000 people to become part of this “lottery”, according to some estimates. Randomly distributed clients are people up to the age of 35, who are at their first job and fail to choose their pension fund within four months from their employment. The number of those who are randomly assigned every month is relatively high, considering that most companies have frozen hiring.

A&D Pharma integrates founders’ businesses for 23m euros

A&D Pharma, the largest pharmaceutical group on the Romanian market, will integrate the operations of Arishop in Bulgaria and the Ozone divisions in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, in the wake of a 23.15 million-euro transaction. A&D Pharma founders, businessmen Ludovic Robert, Walid Abboud, and Roger Akoury, who are keeping their controlling stake in the group, are also shareholders of the newly-acquired companies. Following the deal, A&D Pharma expands its operations onto five regional markets, which will generate around 12% of the turnover. In the first nine months of the year the company posted 364.6 million euros in turnover, and a quarterly average of 121 million euros. According to ZF calculations, if the A&D Pharma business reaches 490 million euros at the end of this year, recently acquired companies will generate around 60 million euros. The group pays the highest price to enter the Bulgarian market, with the Arishop takeover put at around 12.75 million euros. The acquisition of one Ozone division in Poland costs 6 million euros, with the shareholders to pay 0.4 million euros for the Ozone companies in Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, as well as for another Polish division.

Sortilemn Gherla budgets 27m-euro turnover

The management of Sortilemn based in Gherla, one of the leading suppliers of Swedish group IKEA on the Romanian market, expects a 27 million-euro turnover in 2010, a level similar to that expected for this year, when sales were down 25%. “The financial crisis continues to affect the progression of Sortilemn’s business, with armchair sales on a steady decline. We are only recording rises on the children’s furniture segment, but we will focus our attention on developing new products for foreign clients in the coming period, considering that improvements are yet to be seen on the Romanian market,” Michael Brandhuber, general manager and majority shareholder of Sortilemn, told ZF Transilvania. In 2008 over 70% of Sortilemn’s production was ordered by IKEA, with clients of the Gherla-based company including Norway’s Stokke, and Sweden’s Brio and Elfa.

Winter holidays in petrol stations: store sales rise by as much as 30%

The big petrol station chains on the Romanian market have started to prepare special offers for the winter holidays, and with good reason: revenues from the non-oil segment can rise by up to 30% against a regular month. Petroleum companies are not expecting a sales decline during this period compared with last year, having continued expansion of petrol station chains. “In December, especially in the run-up to the winter holidays, sales of non-oil products in Rompetrol petrol stations rise by around 27%, making up between 9% and 20% of a station’s overall sales. The rise is generated both by the petrol stations being open non-stop, as well as by the seasonal offers,” say representatives of Rompetrol, the second-largest player on the petroleum market, which has an around 783-petrol station chain. The other players are also optimistic as to the sales trend in the winter holiday period, and in December in particular. “We expect sales on the non-oil segment to rise by around 10% compared with a regular month,” say representatives of OMV Romania, a company that posted over 600 million euros in turnover via its 77 petrol stations last year.