Following Croatia’s announcement that it is looking to sell more of its stake in state oil company INA, MOL and OMV have both shown an interest. However, as the companies attempt to try to assert de facto dominance in south-eastern Europe by buying a controlling stake in the Croatian oil major, MOL’s expansion plans may be hampered by OMV’s ongoing efforts to purchase its Hungarian counterpart.
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OMV, Rompetrol and Petrom are to build 10 new service stations on the Sun Motorway in Romania. Although these additional sites alone will see the total number of motorway sites more than double, the vast motorway construction project that is currently underway could see a further 87 stations added between now and 2016.
The Romanian Ministry of Transport has announced that 10 motorway stations will be built along the Sun Motorway (A2), more than doubling the number of motorway service stations from the current eight. OMV, Rompetrol and Petrom are the companies that have won the concessions, which will run for a maximum of 29 years. Upon signing the contract they were obliged to set up temporary service stations within 60 days, after which they will have four months in which to establish permanent structures. Read more…
Gazprom Marketing and Trading has taken a major step towards delivering smart metering by acquiring an equity stake in TruRead. The rationale is to raise Gazprom’s presence in the UK gas market and ultimately expand its UK customer portfolio. At a superficial level, this is a win-win situation for its UK customers; however, there are deeper strategic implications if other firms fail to follow. Read more…
Consumers are increasing their on-trade drinking occasions, despite worsening economic conditions. Consumers are increasing their visits to bars, cafes, restaurants and hotels during the week, engaging in more moderate week-round drinking and moving away from so-called weekend session drinking, according to a new report. In order to capitalize on these increased drinking occasions, the on-trade sector will need to offer exclusive products, encouraging consumers to trade up.
Despite the gloomy economic conditions across much of the globe, and stiff competition from the off-trade sector, consumers are increasing their visits to on-trade establishments. Indeed, according to the report, the total number of on-trade occasions is showing modest growth in Europe, the US and Australia, where they are forecast to increase at a CAGR 0.8%, 2.4% and 1.9%, respectively, between 2007 and 2012. Read more…
The Conservative party has laid the blame for Britain’s debt situation firmly on store cards.
George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, has attacked the store card industry for charging ‘excessively high interest rates’ and claims that this issue is central to Britain’s over-indebtedness. However, the average balance on a store card is just £162 and in 2006 the Competition Commission concluded that the issue was best tackled with the provision of information to consumers.
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