Romanian Dailyhttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140fresh business news about Romaniahttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat581402010-03-11T21:02:35+00:00Romanian DailyenAccenture hires outsourcing expertshttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art2439394208/
Accenture entered the Romanian outsourcing market by opening a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) centre in Bucharest a week ago. The company is going to hire several hundreds of experts in outsourcing over the following months to start operating this December, says Glen. The company will thus become one of the major US investors on the Romanian market in terms of the number of employees.

"There's strong demand on the domestic outsourcing market and depending on it we will further expand our operations," Accenture chief of operations in Romania told ZIARUL FINANCIAR in his first interview with the Romanian press.
 
For now, Accenture will operate in Bucharest and is set to expand outside the capital city over the forthcoming years if demand for the services it provides is high enough, specified Glen.

"In the next 3 to 5 years we hope to reach a number of 1,000 employees. Since the centre in Romania focuses on outsourcing (although Accenture also provides management consulting services and technological solutions in other states), most employees will fill positions in this field," stated Glen.

People seeking positions within the Accenture centre must specialise either in finance and accounting, or in human resources management or recruitment.

The company uses the services of two domestic personnel recruitment firms, but also chose to look for employees through Internet portals specialising in work force recruitment on the domestic market.

Globally, the company last year had more than 44,000 employees in 20 countries, but this number will probably go up to 50,000 this year, says Glen, specifying he expects Accenture's number of employees in Romania to grow as fast as the global level.

All Accenture employees will go through a complex training programme before starting work. "We are offering excellent opportunities for our employees' careers, primarily all the necessary training," says Glen.

The first customer of the company will be the international operations unit of the Unilever group, with the domestic operations of this company not being hit by outsourcing as of yet. "We do not yet know when we are going to provide services to the domestic unit of Unilever," says Glen. As for the rest of customers, Accenture Romania cannot disclose any details due to the non-disclosure clause included in contracts.

Hiring 1,000 people takes a total office space of around 8,000-10,000 square metres, according to real estate market experts. For the time being, Accenture has rented 2,000 square metres in Iride Business Park, a complex of office buildings in northern Bucharest.

Accenture

  • Entered the Romanian outsourcing market by opening a BPO centre in Bucharest a week ago
  • Will hire several hundred outsourcing specialists over the next few months, in order to start operating this December
  • Will become one of the most important US investors on the Romanian market in terms of the number of employees
  • Hopes to reach 1,000 employees over the next 3 to 5 years
  • Looks for employees with the help of two domestic recruitment firms and also through specialised online portals.
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]]>2006-07-20T05:25:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandraBroker Cluj records 27% drop in profithttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art1175757055/
Broker is the only brokerage company listed on the Stock Exchange. The company in the first six months of this year registered gross income standing at 6.83 million RON (1.92 million euros), compared with gross profit worth 9.3 million RON in the corresponding period of last year.

Income dropped despite the rise in the trading volume on the Stock Exchange against last year, mainly triggered by the downward trend of the main stocks listed on the market.
 
Broker owns the most valuable stock portfolio among the brokerages present on the market, with the profit derived over the past few years largely coming from the transactions with stock the company conducted for itself.

After a significant leap in January, the main shares listed on the Stock Exchange started to decline in value, with many of them reaching prices last month that were lower than at the end of 2005. Broker registers profits or losses from transactions in its accounting books at the moment of sale.

The accounting value of a Broker share in the middle of this year stood at 1.253 RON, with the value of the company's assets amounting to around 23 million euros, of which 19 million euros were equity capitals. The company's portfolio of listed shares was worth 13.5 million euros.

The only interest of over 10% in a listed company is the 16.5% stake it owns in Mecanica Ceahlau, according to company reports published at the end of May. The company holds a stake of up to 5% in the share capital of 67 companies, and interests of 5% to 33% in another five companies.

Besides its portfolio of shares, the brokerage at the end of last month also had almost 1,000 positions opened on the Sibiu Stock Exchange, where derivate financial instruments are traded.

Broker is the biggest independent securities firm on the market. After the first six months of this year, Broker ranked fourth among brokerage companies on the Stock Exchange, having handled transactions worth 140 million euros and holding a market share of 5.4%. The company was the only one of the top six that did not have a bank as its main shareholder.

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]]>2006-07-19T07:38:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandraFortius Finance Acquire Euro Invest Visionhttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art0955240888/
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]]>2006-07-12T09:33:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandraAccenture to employ 1,000 in Romaniahttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art3168353158/

Accenture is to employ 1,000 people in a new business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in Romania.

Over the next three months the company is recruiting people with skills in HR, finance and procurement to work in Bucharest, initially engaged on projects for Unilever.

The company already has operations in Bratislava, Prague, Riga and Warsaw.

Earlier this year, Unilever signed a seven-year contract with Accenture for IT application development and support across Europe.

Financial terms of the contracts were not revealed but the contract is part of the consumer goods group's 'One Unilever' programme, which aims to deliver annual savings of €700m by creating a streamlined operating model for the company.

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]]>2006-07-10T06:12:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandraPWC gets 12m euros from the sale of Electrica's "jewel"http://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art9861572150/
"The client admits it will pay a success fee worth 1.5% of the value of the transaction, a gross sum, the tax levied at the source included. The value of the transaction is defined as being 100% of the value of the capital contribution subscribed or agreed to be subscribed, plus any other total sums paid or agreed to be paid, in case existing shares are bought by an investor," reads a document from the Ministry of Economy and Trade, which is on the government's agenda.

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]]>2006-07-07T08:08:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandra Accenture Opens BPO Delivery Center in Bucharesthttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art7975834990/
The Bucharest center will complement Accenture's existing global delivery network of more than 40 delivery centers in more than 20 countries. In Eastern Europe, Accenture already operates delivery centers in Bratislava, Prague, Riga and Warsaw. These centers provide a wide array of services in system integration, application outsourcing, or business process outsourcing.

"Demand continues to be strong for BPO and adding a center in Bucharest will allow us to provide services to our clients around the world across a number of industries," said Alasdair Glen, Bucharest BPO delivery center lead. "We're actively recruiting highly skilled personnel for our Bucharest center and plan to hire several hundred people over the next few months."

When fully staffed, the delivery center in Bucharest will employ up to 1,000 professionals. They will be supported by Accenture's methods, tools and architectures, which enable the company's global teams to deliver consistent, high-quality solutions to companies worldwide. Initially, the Bucharest center will provide human resource services for Unilever.

Accenture has selected Bucharest among various potential locations for its large population of motivated professionals who speak multiple languages and have the right technical skills to meet its client demands. Over the next three months, Accenture is looking to hire professionals with skills in HR, finance and procurement.

Accenture's global delivery network is comprised of more than 44,000 people. Through this global delivery network, Accenture is able to distribute client work to professionals in centers such as Bucharest to create multi-country teams that leverage the necessary language skills, time zone advantages, and specialized industry or technical expertise to best meet the needs of their clients.

"With the opening of new centers in Bucharest and in Warsaw, coupled with existing centers across Europe and around the globe, we believe we can provide the right services anywhere they're required, at any time, and in any language our customers desire," said Jo Deblaere, a senior executive who heads Accenture's BPO global delivery network.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 133,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$15.55 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2005. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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]]>2006-07-06T13:38:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandraBRD Securities manager and chief analyst to join CA IBhttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art2208586888/
CA IB Securities in late May occupied sixth position in the brokerage ranking.

According to some market sources, another three people in the BRD Securities team, including Adriana Marin, manager of the research department, will also leave. However, Daniel Pocorea, the company's head of trading, will continue to work for BRD Securities, the same sources say.

"The reason I'm leaving is that I have accomplished my mission with BRD.
 
I've brought the company to a point where it's managed to boast remarkable achievements and for me personally it's time to choose new challenges in my career," Liviu Giugiumica told ZF. He declined to disclose any details regarding the identity of the people that may join him at rival CA IB Securities. "All I want to say is that I'm leaving behind a strong, solid team, capable of further important achievements," said Giugiumica. Liviu Giugiumica, 39, took over the position of general manager of BRD Securities (at that time BRD Invest) in February 2002.

Brokers on the market say that Liviu Giugiumica and Adriana Marin's departures are expected to affect the company.

"Any departure from a top management position entails a short-term customer loss and a drop in the volume of trading. When joining another company, a broker is primarily "selling" his customer portfolio and it is because of this that his salary and other benefits are considered. When you see your manager and main analyst leave that means you have an image problem given that the human factor is what matters most on this market," specified the manager of one of the biggest brokerages on the market.

Giugiumica considers, though, that one cannot say that his leaving will mean BRD Securities will lose some customers.

"It is not necessarily true that my departure would entail the departure of some customers. Most institutional customers that are present in Romania are trading through all the major brokers," says Giugiumica.

Giugiumica will reportedly take over the position of general manager of CA IB Securities, whilst the position of chairman will go to Dan Pascariu, who is also HVB Bank chairman.

One of the people under consideration for a management role in BRD Securities is Dragos Neacsu, a managing partner with Dragon Finance consultancy. Neacsu worked as chairman of Raiffeisen Capital & Investment until late 2004, when he left to take over the position of secretary of state with the Finance Ministry.

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]]>2006-06-29T09:11:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandraBroker Cluj aims to get stronger positionhttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art5431283915/
Prunea says several institutional investors have voiced their interest in Broker over the last few months. "Several banks have requested data on Broker over the last two months. An investment fund has also expressed its interest, but on condition Broker should be a closed company," Petru Prunea told ZF.
 
He chose not to disclose the identity of investors interested in the company.

Broker Cluj has come to have a share capital comparable to that of SIFs, some of the richest companies in the country, in the wake of the capital increase operation carried out this year. The company's management had, in the past, expressed its wish that Broker should become a "sixth SIF".

With a value of 54.6 million RON (15.5 million euros), Broker's capital has outstripped that of SIF Moldova and Transilvania but remains lower than that of SIF Banat-Crisana, Oltenia and Muntenia. However, all the SIFs, excluding Muntenia, have not modified their share capital since the moment they were set up due to the high shareholder dispersion. Ultimately, this made it impossible for a quorum for the Extraordinary General Meeting to be reached, in order to decide upon a share capital raise.

The only financial investment company that has increased its share capital somehow was SIF Muntenia, but only the shareholders that had not picked up their dividends, and not all shareholders, benefited from the operation.

At the same time, Broker cannot be compared to the SIFs in terms of assets, as in late May the company had total assets worth 89.5 million RON (25.4 million euros), while SIFs' assets are worth approximately around 400-500 million euros.

"We did not target becoming the sixth SIF; we want to be a company that cannot be taken over easily, as has happened in other fields of business," specified Petru Prunea. He also said becoming a SIF was not Broker's objective, as the company also performs brokerage activities.

Broker management says the company will continue to try and bolster its position on the market, planning to merge with other similar companies to reach its objectives.

"In two years, we will reach a share capital of 100 million RON (28.5 million euros). We will attain these goals through planned mergers, as well," Prunea also said. He did not offer any details on the possible merger partners.

Prunea specified that the sums derived from the capital increase operation would be used for new investments on the capital market and to open new offices. During the last capital increase operation, Broker raised 11.1 million RON (3.17 million euros) from shareholders.

Broker Cluj

# The only stock market brokerage firm listed on the Stock Exchange

# Plans to double its share capital to survive on the market and avoid becoming an easy takeover target

# Several institutional investors have voiced their interest in the company over the last few months

# Plans to merge with other similar companies to bolster its position on the market.

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]]>2006-06-23T06:21:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandraHemmelrath exits, RSM MCGladrey entershttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art7076760066/  
With its integrated service structure, Hemmelrath competes mainly with companies such as those in the Big Four - PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young. Operations of the Hemmelrath group in Romania, which is involved in audit, consultancy & taxes and legal consultancy, are entering a new phase, due to the fact that the head of the legal department, Catalin Grigorescu, as well most of the lawyers in the firm have decided to leave and try their strength on their own on the market of business law.

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]]>2006-06-23T06:12:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandraPossible Asymmetric Split of HTI Securitieshttp://romaniandaily.ro/cat58140/art8124779231/
HTI Securities holds a consolidated position on the Romanian capital market and owns the largest stake in the share capital of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (1.8 percent). Also, the firm consolidated its grip on the Sibiu Monetary and Commodities Exchange to (16 percent) following the increase in the Exchange's capital last year. Later on, HTI Securities ceded approximately 8 percent in the Sibiu Monetary and Commodities Exchange to two Ltds.

HTI Securities was established in 1997 and is a founding member of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The initial name of the firm was EFINVEST. In late 2001, EFINVEST had no ongoing operations and was acquired by HTI Financial, a leading brokerage firm on the derivatives section of the Sibiu Monetary and Commodities Exchange at that time. Following the capital injection made by the new majority shareholder, the company resumed brokerage activities on BVB and RASDAQ. In 2005, HTI Securities ranked 16th among Romanian brokers ranked by the aggregate value of brokered transactions and secured a 2.5 market share.

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]]>2006-06-20T08:25:00+00:00Financial Services (Diversified)IulianBulandra