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UniCredit Ţiriac Bank had a net profit of 171.2 million lei in 2010, according to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), down 47.9% compared to 2009, due to an increase in the cost of risk, the bank"s press communiqué states.

Petre Pavel Szel, the chairman of SAI Muntenia, the company that manages SIF "Muntenia" (SIF4), considers that any attempt of the management of the Bucharest Stock Exchange to increase turnover on the back of the five FICs is just a...

Six official documents, of which two exclusive distribution agreements, were signed yesterday by the Korean and Romanian companies which attended the seminar held by the South Korean Government Agency "Kotra".

The European currency yesterday fell to a nine-month low. The Romanian National Bank displayed a reference exchange rate of 4.1843 lei/Euro, down 2.05 bani, compared to the level of 4.2048 lei/Euro, recorded Friday. The last time this level was...

The price of corn, wheat, soybeans and rice fell Friday in the United States, after the earthquake in Japan, - a country which is the largest importer for those commodities from the United States. Investors expect grains prices to fall, given the...

The Danube Delta is not just a natural paradise, but also hell for those who built their homes built on land for which they do not hold the ownership rights.

Romania has more opportunities for investors than we can imagine, said Mugur Isărescu, the governor of the Romanian Central Bank said yesterday, addressing the businesspeople present at the "Forum Gulf Cooperation Council - Romania:

The managers of the five financial investment companies (SIFs) last week met in Vienna with members of the management of "Erste" to discuss the dividend policy of BCR for the year 2010, according to sources who did not wish to be named.

News of a possible general strike did not reach the ears of some of the employees of the Central Headquarters of the Romanian Commercial Bank. Some of them had told us that they had not even heard about last week"s Japanese strike.

The Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM) is forcing the Board of Directors of the Investment Management Company "Pioneer Asset Management" to summon the shareholders to decide on whether the company will be dissolved, or, as the...

Any investment made in Romania can become profitable, since Romania lags behind Western Europe, president Traian Băsescu said yesterday, in the opening of the Forum "The Gulf Cooperation Council - South Eastern Europe - Business...

Arab businessmen of the Gulf are interested in investing their petrodollars in Romania. Discussions on the subject will take place at the business forum hosted in Bucharest by the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,...

The Economic Forum of Bucharest represents the unique opportunity of bringing together to the same table the public and private business sectors of Romania and representatives of Romania and six other countries. Between March 8th and March 10th,...

• How would you characterize Romania"s cooperation with the countries in the Gulf area, and what is your outlook on the future of this cooperation?  

• Your Excelency, how does UAE face the global economic crisis? 

Romania is expected to return to economic growth in 2011, after a 1.2 percent drop in 2010. Even though, in the beginning of the crisis, the government didn"t seem to be aware of the effects of the international economic turmoil, in 2009 they...

The economy of Saudi Arabia relies on oil, as the government controls most of the economic activities. The kingdom serves as the leader of the OPEC, as it controls approximately 20% of the world"s proven oil reserves. It is also the number...

The economy of Bahrain is one of the most diversified of those in the Persian Gulf, hosting several multinationals, thanks to the well developed communication facilities and transport system.

The international crisis, the difficulty in securing foreign funding and asset depreciation have slowed the economic growth of the United Arab Emirates in 2010. The effects of the financial turbulence were felt the hardest in Dubai, which was...

Around 9% of the world"s oil reserves are located in Kuwait, as the oil sector accounts for half of the country"s GDP, and 95% of the budget revenues. Kuwaiti authorities have pledged to increase oil production to 4 million barrels a day...

Due to its dwindling oil resources, Oman has actively pursued a development plan with the objective of reducing the oil sector"s contribution to GDP to 9% by 2020.

Qatar can boast the largest economic growth in the world in 2010, even as the economic crisis continued to make its effects felt. The Qatari government sought to support the banking system, with direct investments in the domestic banks.

How much money do the Arabs have?

Global port operator DP World, which has also been present in Constanţa, since 2003, has seen an exponential increase in handled volumes, exceeding one million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent container units) in 2007 and 2008. Since launching its...

Qatar Airways entered the Romanian market in January, thus beginning its plans to expand to Europe.

"Emirates Airlines" entered the Romanian market in 1997, to major interest from passengers for the destinations it covered.

Demand for loans in the agricultural sector has increased eight times in the past few years, Agriculture minister Valeriu Tabără claims.

The Fraud Squad (GF) and the National Customs Authority (ANV) will be disbanded, and their functions will be taken over by the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), according to a draft bill published on the website of the Ministry of Public...

Intercapital Invest, one of the most active independent brokerage firms in Romania, will enter a consortium with JP Morgan and BCR to intermediate the secondary offer of OMV Petrom (SNP),

The creation of Units 3 and 4 of Cernavodă will be delayed about a year, since the state needs to select new private partners to replace the four that pulled out of the project, said Mircea Ursache, a member on the Board of Directors of...

Up until recently, home insurance wasn"t exactly a hit with Romanians.

OTP Bank, the largest Hungarian lender, intends to increase its Romanian assets by up to 9% and it may buy loan portfolios from rivals in the country, the head of the local unit said, according to Mediafax, which quotes Bloomberg.

BRD Sogelease IFN S.A., the leasing division of BRD - Groupe Société Générale, concluded over 1,400 contracts in 2010, worth 99 million Euros, up 35% over 2009, according to a press release by the company.

After repeated price increases since the beginning of the year, the price of fuel is getting vertiginously close to the level of 6 lei/liter and could cause a domino of price increases for consumer goods.

The sale of the TV broadcasting rights for the football games of the !st League would be a real lifeline for most of the clubs in the first division.

And it"s not exactly chump change - it"s ten million dollars.

The official receiver of "Astra Vagoane Arad", "Romvag" and "Meva", companies which are part of the "International Railway Systems" (IRS) group, is looking for investors, to allow the successful reorganization of...

The elimination of the special reporting requirements of the FICs to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) has sparked the concern of some of the BSE investors, who are concerned that the five financial investment companies will be less transparent...

• The quotations of grains, which until recently bore the brunt of the blame for rise of the price of food are now dropping 

Bankers think that the project which is currently being reviewed internally by the NBR, by which lenders may receive stock in the companies that have overdue loans, is not to the benefit of the institutions they are managing.

"OMV Petrom", the largest domestic company, last year made a net profit of 2.19 billion lei, up 163% over 2009, as the management of the company announced it would propose to shareholders the payment of dividends from last year"s...