Business Review Issue 25/2014 July 7 - 13

ROMANIA’S PREMIER BUSINESS WEEKLY JULY 7 - 13, 2014 / VOLUME 18, NUMBER 25

INTERVIEW: The local pharmaceuticals market could shrink thisyear, unless new drugs receive approval for reimbursement,warns Gabor Sztaniszlav, president of the Local American WorkingGroup (LAWG) »page 8

FOCUS

Small is beautifulThe Bucharest StockExchange wants towoo smaller compa-nies to go public by reforming the marketand launching a specialplatform this autumn» page 7

CITY

Come to camp!Dreading your child’scry of “I’m bored” during the long schoolholiday? Summercamp could be the answer. BR runs downthe best local options» page 12

LINKS

TELENAV, CREATOROF THE SCOUT APP,ENTERED THEROMANIAN MARKETBY TAKING OVERSKOBBLER, ANDNOW HAS AN OFFICEIN CLUJ. THE FIRM’S CEO TOLD BRWHAT’S NEXT» PAGE 10

VODAFONE POWERS UP

Vodafone Romania,

whose incoming

CEO is Ravinder

Takkar, has secured

state financing for

its new shared

services center,

which will create

2,000 jobs in the

next three years

» page 4

NEW S 3www.business-review.eu Business Review | July 7 - 13, 2014

NEWS in briefNEW S 3

FINANCERaiffeisen Investment Romaniashuts up shopMergers and acquisitions consultancyfirm, Raiffeisen Investment, closed onJuly 1, CEO Ioana Filipescu has an-nounced. The former manager is plan-ning to open an independent companyin the same field. Raiffeisen InvestmentRomania was established in 1998 as a100 percent subsidiary of Raiffeisen In-vestment AG in Vienna, since when ithas provided M&A advisory services tomajor Romanian and Western Europeanclients.

PROPERTYXerox moves into new HQ Xerox Romania has announced it willbe moving into a new headquarters lo-cated close to Pipera subway station onJune 30. The firm has rented the secondfloor of the Hermes Business Campus,developed by Properties Investment(Atenor Group), for the next seven years.The new headquarters will host a teamof 100 employees across all departments,from sales and customer relations tosupport operations. Last year, Xeroxannounced it would be hiring 440 peoplein Bucharest and Iasi by the end of theyear.

Maurer buys 3.4 ha in Brasovfor Avantgarden3Real estate developer Maurer Imobiliare,founded by Simon Maurer, has boughta plot of 3.4 ha in Brasov for the thirdphase of residential project Avantgar-den3, where the company has alreadybuilt 1,600 apartments. Constructionwork is continuing on the first stage,where so far 14 out of 18 buildings havebeen delivered. Two more blocks willbe finished this summer, and anothertwo by the end of the year. The devel-oper has begun construction work onthe second phase, with the start datefor the third contingent on sales.

Kromberg & Schubert acquiresits leased Arad properties German automotive components pro-ducer Kromberg & Schubert has acquiredthe property it had been leasing fromSolvency Project in Chisineu Cris, inArad, for the last ten years, in order toexpand its manufacturing capacity. Witha total surface area of 27,000 sqm, thesite includes a factory and land. JLLmanaged the transaction on behalf ofthe owner. The value of the acquisitionwas not made public. Kromberg & Schu-bert has four plants in western and cen-tral Romania.

Skanska invests EUR 33 mln inGreen Court phase twoSwedish developer Skanska will investEUR 33 million in the second develop-ment phase of the Green Court officeproject and intends to complete con-struction work on the new building inMay 2015, writes Mediafax. Work onGreen Court, Skanska’s first project inRomania, started a year ago. The struc-ture and facade of the first building isalready done, which means that thefirst phase is 80 percent complete. Thedraft for building A will be finalized inthe third quarter.

RETAILLeroy Merlin to open secondstore in Bucharest followingEUR 13-16 mln investmentDIY retailer Leron Merlin will investEUR 13 to 16 million in a new store inBucharest that will be opened in spring2015. Located on Soseaua Alexandriei,the new unit will generate 150 jobs. Cristian Petrescu, development manager,told wall-street.ro that the branch wouldcover 13,000 sqm and was part of theretailer’s five-year investment plan,which started in 2011 when it enteredthe market. Meanwhile, the second

Leroy Merlin location in the countrywill be ready for inauguration in Craiovain the fall.

TAXGovernment introduces ‘goodfaith’ deposit for firms thatchallenge public auctionsCompanies that try to overturn the re-sults of public auctions will be requiredto present a financial deposit “in goodfaith,” representing 1 percent of the totalestimated value of the disputed contract.The money will be retained by the stateif the appeal is rejected. The level ofthe deposit could be capped dependingon the type of contract: construction,goods or services. The decision to in-troduce the new type of guarantee wastaken in the last government meeting.The law currently stipulates that if theNational Council for Solving Contesta-tions (CNSC) rejects the appeal, the con-tractor is entitled to a sum from thechallenger’s participation deposit. In apress statement, the European FundsMinistry said, “In order to protect con-tractors from abusive appeals, the gov-ernment has introduced a mandatorygood faith deposit for contesting publicacquisition procedures,” according toMediafax.

Beauty is in the eye of the photoshopper

Journalist and blogger Esther Honig sent her picture to be photoshopped bydesigners from over 25 different countries to explore local beauty standards.The Romanian version underwent subtle modification and was nowherenear as extreme as other countries’ efforts. (Left to right, top row: theoriginal, Argentina, the Philippines; bottom: Romania, the US, Germany)

MOST READ www.business-review.eu

1 Dutch tourist creates effectivevideo ad for Romania by accident.What are the authorities doing?

2 Romanian artist Adrian Gheniesells EUR 1.77 mln painting atSotheby’s auction house

3 Romania, first country to ratifyEU pacts with Moldova, Ukraineand Georgia

4 Huffington Post: Second bestcastle in the world is in Romania

5 July 1 is coming: New minimumwage, energy rates and roamingcharges

WEEK AHEAD

July 7

D-Day looms for Dan Voiculescu The latest hearing in the prosecutionof the Intact Media Group owner DanVoiculescu, who is on trial for corrup-tion in relation to the privatization ofthe Food Research Institute (ICA).Witnesses will be allowed to addressthe court. The case was moved fromthe High Court of Cassation and Jus-tice to the Bucharest Court of Ap-peals last year. If convicted,Voiculescu could be sentenced to upto 12 years in prison.

Bac 2014High schools across the country willpublish the official results of the Ro-manian Baccalaureate exam, sum-mer session, in the early hours ofJuly 7. Over 160,000 high-school stu-dents signed up to take the exam,down from 190,000 last year.

July 8

European Funds ForumParticipants in the 2014 EuropeanFunds Forum will be able to learnmore about the 2014-2020 EuropeanStructural and Investment FundsStrategy and the opportunities it pro-vides for the business environment.Marriott Hotel, 2.30 pm.

July 13

World Cup FinalBrazil 2014, considered by many to bethe best World Cup ever, will con-clude with great aplomb tonight.Looking for a lively place to enjoy thematch in downtown Bucharest?Check the business-review.eu web-site for a rundown of ten of the bestpubs and sports bars in the capital toenjoy the flagship football feast.

4 NEWSwww.business-review.eu

Business Review | July 7 - 13, 2014

TELECOM

Vodafone footprint in Romania growswith new shared services center

∫ OTILIA HARAGA

The opening of the Vodafone sharedservices (VSS) center was attended byPM Victor Ponta, minister of communi-cations Razvan Cotovelea, and Ravin-der Takkar, CEO of Vodafone Romania,who was meeting the Romanian mediafor the first time.

During the event, Ponta announcedthat the state had granted financing toVodafone Romania, information con-firmed by the mobile operator’s officials.

“As of yesterday, we have a new lawregarding tax exemptions for reinvestedprofit. I wish Vodafone a big profit sothat it can reinvest its tax free profit inRomania. We have also kept an olderlaw that grants fiscal facilities to thoseworking in IT, and I think this was agood thing to do,” said Ponta at theopening. “With the opening of theVodafone shared services center, nu-merous young people will have the op-portunity to get a job and will no longerhave to go looking for work in othercountries. I hope not necessarily to re-verse emigration, but to offer as manyyoung people as possible the chance tobuild a career right here in Romania. Iknow about the new project for whichthe company has applied for state aid,and which will create new jobs. I hopethat, if the government cannot help, atleast it will not stand in the way.”

Vodafone announced it had investedapproximately GBP 5 million (EUR 6.25million) in the center.

According to Ministry of Financedata, the value of the state aid grantedto Vodafone Romania was EUR 8.19 mil-lion. The sum was awarded to “expandthe activity of Vodafone Romaniathrough an initial investment, whichconsisted of the acquisition of equip-ment and the creation of new jobs.”

The estimated salary costs of theproject, according to ministry data, areEUR 20.48 million, and the estimatednumber of jobs that will be created withthe help of the state funding is 450.

Vodafone officials said during thepress conference that state aid had beengranted for the opening of the VSS cen-ter, but was not a precondition for theestablishment of the site. In fact, theysaid, the VSS center was already opera-tional when the company received thestate aid approval, on June 27.

“Romania was selected for its great

language skills and availability of talent,which will ensure the delivery of greatquality services at a competitive cost.We now have an ambitious growth planto reach over 2,000 roles in the nextthree years,” said Steven McCrystal,group director, shared services.

The new center, which is located ontwo floors in the Avrig Business Center,already has 100 employees, havingstarted its activity in May. By the end of2014 the workforce will reach 750, andover the next three years, the numberwill rise to over 2,000. As the teamgrows, Vodafone may also expand, ei-ther in the Avrig Business Center or toother locations. All new employees willundergo one to three months of training.

In the customer care area, the newsite provides support for invoice andpayment inquiries, account administra-tion and data troubleshooting for a totalof 90 million customers from the UK,Germany, Italy, Spain and Ireland. Serv-ices are supplied via phone, online chat,as well as back-office channels.

On the IT segment, VSS Romaniaprovides IT help desk operations, first-and second-level applications supportand database administration for the in-ternal needs of the five operations aswell as for Vodafone Group (HQ).

This is the second Vodafone centerto have opened in Bucharest after theDanubius networks operations center(NOC), inaugurated last year, whichmanages network incidents on nineVodafone markets: the Netherlands,

Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary,Romania, Greece, Albania, Malta andItaly. The NOC employs over 500 Ro-manian engineers and provides servicesto Vodafone operations with a total ofover 90 million customers. Through theNOC, Vodafone also opened a serviceoperations center dedicated to monitor-ing M2M services provided to thegroup’s global customers.

In Romania, the operator also hascustomer care centers in other citiessuch as Brasov and Ploiesti, but thosedeliver services for internal customers.

Takkar commented, “Romania is avery interesting mix between devel-oped markets, which you see in placeslike Bucharest, for instance, and whatyou see on emerging markets. It isclearly a very highly competitive mar-ket. The opportunities that I see are indata, internet connectivity, smartphonepenetration and the financial servicesarea, where we have launched the m-pesa service. The real metrics here arenot about how many customers areusing m-pesa, but in how many placespeople can use it for transactions. Wehave added more than 1,000 such loca-tions in Romania.”

Vodafone has invested over EUR 2billion in Romania since it first came onthe market. On March 31, the operatorhad 8,185,680 local mobile customers.The company has recently expanded its4G network to nine new cities.

[email protected]

State support: PM Victor Ponta and Vodafone Romania CEO Ravinder Takkar

What is the current pricing environ-

ment for steel in Europe and how does

it impact your plan to sell USD 200 mil-

lion of steel in Romania this year?

The pure pricing context at the momentis challenging. We have overcapacity inthe industry, but low-cost producers aregaining entry into the European market.Western European-based producerstypically charge high prices but the prod-uct quality is much higher and they op-erate in a more developed regulatoryenvironment. As they move into thehigher cycles of a higher quality product,that creates gaps for us to graduallymove into as well.

Is Metinvest grappling with overcapac-

ity?

Not really. We have a pretty good supplybalance position now and I think that isbecause we are globally focused. Wehave our core strategic market, whichis Russia, CIS, Ukraine and Europe; thenwe have specific products that go intoNorth America. Above that we have abalancing market, which we can offer inAsia and other places.

Has the ongoing political crisis in

Ukraine disrupted your deliveries of

steel to clients?

The short answer is no. Of course it ischallenging for the management to putmeasures in place to counteract any po-tential deviations or hiccups. But so farwe have been able to manage that, and Ithink that is testament to the good man-agement in terms of logistics and pro-duction, and credit to the workforce, whohave been able to stay committed andloyal.

[email protected]

3QDavid Summerfielddirector regionaldevelopment atMetinvest Holding

Vodafone Romania has opened a new shared services center in Bucharest, providing IT and customer relations services for the mobile telco’s other European operations. The company, which received aid from the Romanian state,has announced that it will hire 2,000 people to work in the center over the nextthree years.

WHO’S 5www.business-review.eu Business Review | July 7 - 13, 2014

AGRICULTURE

Romania sends official NPRDdraft to Brussels

ART

Adrian Gheniepainting fetchesrecord EUR 1.7 mlnin London auction

The Romanian authorities havesent to Brussels the official draftof the National Program for Rural

Development (NPRD), announced rep-resentatives of the Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development (MADR). Theprogram will regulate how local farmerscan gain access to EU financing for in-vestment projects for the period 2014-2020. The funding amounts to EUR 9.85billion and will be available through 15measures.

The draft was submitted last week.Romania began informal negotiationsover the NPRD with the European Com-mission (EC) in March, when it sent toBrussels a first draft with 14 measures.

“We have tried to use the money wehave been allocated, which is not enoughfor all that needs to be done, as efficientlyas possible. Nevertheless, what we havebeen allocated will be prioritized andwill ensure a decisive step forward forthe modernization of the rural economy,”said Daniel Constantin, the Romanianminister of agriculture and rural devel-opment.

The new NPRD will undergo a newnegotiation process, but the ministersaid he was “confident that the programwill not suffer major changes”. Although

no final agreement has been reached,the MADR has begun to launch calls forprojects under the new NPRD.

Romania’s NPRD for 2014-2020 willfeature 15 measures, according to itslatest form, down from the 24 in theNPRD for 2007-2013, which should allowa better focus on the needs of local farm-ers, said authorities. Special focus willbe given to investments in productionfor both small and large farms, with adedicated program for investments inorchards, the integration of productionchains and incentives for young Roma-nians looking to set up a farming businessin rural areas, according to previousstatements by Constantin. All the doc-uments that the MADR sent to Brusselslast week will be published on the min-istry’s website.

The NPRD was drafted within thecontext of a reformed Common Agri-cultural Policy (CAP) which takes intoconsideration the specific structural sit-uation of Romania’s agriculture and al-lows each EU country to determine theway EU funds are spend, said DacianCiolos, EU commissioner for agricultureand rural development, during a visitto Bucharest in March. ∫

Simona Bazavan

Ion Dobrescuis the new head ofCEZ Distributie,replacing DoinaVornicu who hasbeen promoted.His previous posi-tion was directorfor strategy and

development. He joined the utilityfirm in 2007 as deputy director,and director of the exploitation andmaintenance department. He has aprofessional background of over32 years in the energy sector.

Robin van Rozenhas been elected president of theNetherlands Romanian Chamber

of Commerce (NRCC). He is thegeneral manager of Philips SouthEastern Europe. The new boardalso includes Irina Zugrava, man-aging partner at Vapro Romania,as VP; Jan Glas, managing partnerat TPA Horwath, as treasurer; andIsfahan Doekhie, CEO of Bliss Ro-mania, as secretary. The otherboard members are HermanWierenga, managing director of

ORTEC; Dora Surugiu, managing di-rector at Maastricht School of Man-agement; Joep de Roo, managing di-rector of Eurodite; Ronald Oort, chiefrisk officer at ING Bank Romania;and Jan Willem Kivits, managing di-rector of FrieslandCampina Romania.

Yedil Utekov has replaced Sorin Graure as gen-eral manager of Rompetrol Rafinare,part of KMG International. He hasbeen working as deputy generalmanager since December 2012 andgeneral director for RompetrolPetrochemicals since November2013. Before joining Rompetrol,Utekov had accumulated 10 years ofprofessional experience in the oil in-dustry, working for Kazakh compa-nies such as Agip KCO and the Atyrayrefinery.

Doina Vornicuis the new operations director of CEZ

Group in Romania. She is the firstRomanian manager to hold the sec-ond most important strategic posi-tion at the group level. Vornicu previ-ously worked for five years as

executive directorand member of thedirectorate of CEZDistributie. She hasworked in the en-ergy sector for over28 years, holdingpositions in various

fields including marketing, audit andthe distribution of electricity.

Martin Zmelik has been appointedcountry managerand president of theboards of CEZ Ro-

mania and CEZ Dis-

tributie. He is re-placing Jan Veskrna,who has spent nine

years at the helm of the Czech utilityfirm’s local operations. Zmelikstarted working for CEZ Group in2005 as director of international op-erations. He came to Romania in2010 as operations director. Zmelikis a graduate of the ManagementFaculty at the University of Econom-ics in Prague and holds an MBA fromthe US Business School.

WHO’S NEWSBR welcomes information for Who’s News. Submissions may be edited fo r length and clarity.

Get in touch at [email protected]

Adrian Ghenie’s painting The FakeRothko sold last week for GBP1.4 million (EUR 1.7 million) at

London auction house Sotheby’s. Thefinal sale price was four times the es-timated value of GBP 250,000-350,000and is a new record for the artist.

Ghenie, who was on Art+Auction’slist of the 50 most collectible contem-porary artists in June of 2012, startedthe Plan B Gallery in Cluj, with pro-fessional partner Mihai Pop, in 2005.He painted The Fake Rothko in 2010.The previous record for the artist’swork had stood since June 2013, whenGhenie sold a painting for USD 332,825.According to Bloomberg.com, the un-derbidder for The Fake Rothko was aclient of Wei-Ting Huang, Sotheby’sLondon-based private client liaisonfor Asia.

Sotheby’s sold works worth GBP 93million in last week’s contemporaryart auction in London, where piecesby Francis Bacon, Mark Rothko, Ger-hard Richter and Andy Warhol wentunder the hammer. ∫

Oana Vasiliu

FOCUS 7www.business-review.eu Business Review | July 7 - 13, 2014

BVB seeking private issuers following Electrica IPO

billion over the same period.Experts say that in Romania entre-

preneurs are holding off on their listingplans, fearing the pricing of an initialpublic offering could be too low.

“At the moment the only one listingcompanies is the state. We, as a firm, arein discussions with many firms aboutlisting them but there is reluctance fromthose that have this type of business,caused by the market’s valuing of com-panies on the BVB,” Grigore Chis, gen-eral manager of brokerage firm SSIFBroker, told BR. “At present, all listedshares are greatly undervalued. Sec-ondly, all companies trading on the BVBhave very low liquidity.”

Sobolewski pointed out last weekduring a forum for retail investors thatthe daily turnover of the BVB had in-creased by 35 percent to more than EUR9 million (excluding public offerings) inthe first five months of this year againstthe same period of last year.

Reforms running in parallelwith privatizationsEarlier this year, the BVB kicked off amassive capital market reform program,aiming to deal with the eight mostpressing issues related to red tape andtrading costs. Known as the Great Barriers Shift program, it is being imple-mented with the help of the govern-ment and the ASF.

Recently, the authorities removedone of the obstacles that would force in-ternational investors to use fiscal agents

when buying shares in Romania.Events suggest some of these re-

forms are already starting to pay off: inthe recently concluded Electrica IPO,fewer international investors boughtglobal depositary receipts (GDRs, thecertificate issued by banks or depositaryinstitutions that allow the shares of acompany to be traded on a foreign mar-ket) in London.

In the IPO of Electrica, the electricitysupplier and distributor, shares ac-counted for around 80 percent of the of-fering, while the rest were GDRs. Thecompany raised last month around EUR444 million from selling a 51 percentstake in Bucharest and London. Elec-trica was set to start trading on July 4with a projected market capitalizationof EUR 868 million.

“I believe it is essential now to focuson this objective of ours of upgradingthe market from frontier to emergingstatus,” said Anghel.

The European Bank for Reconstruc-tion and Development bought sharesworth EUR 75 million in this IPO, be-coming the second biggest shareholderin Electrica, according to Razvan Nico-lescu, the delegate minister of energy.The third biggest shareholder is ING.

“This was the largest IPO ever in Ro-mania and it has a big chance of beingthe largest one in CEE in 2014,” saidSobolewski.

Romania’s previous biggest IPO wasthat of natural gas producer Romgaz.The company raised EUR 391 million

from selling a 15 percent stake, with onethird of the offering comprising GDRs.

BR asked Sobolewski what he ex-pects will happen with the market, con-sidering that the next mega-listing – ofHidroelectrica, the state-owned hydro-electricity producer that is currently ininsolvency – could take place some timein the fourth quarter of 2015.

“I trust the government can sellsomething else in this period – smallerstakes in already listed companies butalso smaller companies out of this pri-vatization portfolio that are not listed.This is feasible before we get to Hidro-electrica,” said the CEO.

Anghel expressed his hopes of hav-ing higher free floats in other listedcompanies such as oil major Petrom. Hesaid this would lead to increased tradingvolumes on the BVB. “There will bemore deals, like the Property Fund’s(FP) sale in Romgaz. I hope to see moretransactions by the FP,” said Anghel.

The FP, managed by Franklin Tem-pleton, raised EUR 147 million from sell-ing a 5 percent stake in Romgaz lastmonth. The EUR 3.5 billion closed-endfund has mooted a secondary listing inLondon later this year, in a bid to reducethe discount on its shares.

IPO costs in RomaniaRomania is broadly in line with otherstock exchanges in the region, includingBudapest and Prague, regarding thecosts of IPOs, according to the BVB pres-ident.

“It is not the costs (e.n. that are theproblem), but the access to a pool of liq-uidity. Electrica has already raised closeto EUR 400 million from (e.n. selling)shares locally, so we can no longer saythat a company cannot raise EUR 50million on the local stock exchange,”said Anghel.

Sobolewski added that the stock ex-change is “extremely expensive” whenit comes to secondary trading and thatthe fees would be decreased by the BVBin the near future, following a move bythe ASF.

However, Chis of SSIF Broker sug-gested that once the ASF and the BVBbegin to cut costs, this cannot bestopped. “At the moment, we brokershave commission of around 20 percentof what we had in 2007,” he said.

[email protected]

∫ OVIDIU POSIRCA

Ludwik Sobolewski, CEO of the BVB,said that the regulation for this platformhad already been prepared and wouldbe submitted for approval to the Finan-cial Supervision Authority (ASF).

“In parallel we will start working withbasically two groups of entities, poten-tial issuers and nominated advisors, be-cause the market will have advisoryfirms that will be giving assistance to is-suers, as happens in London on theAIM,” said the CEO.

Started in 1995, the AIM (formerlythe Alternative Investment Market) tar-gets smaller companies aiming to raisecapital for growth. There were close to1,100 firms listed on it in May, out ofwhich 875 were UK-based and the restinternational. Its market value stood atEUR 95 billion.

He told BR the market would belaunched in autumn, but the exact datedepends on the ASF’s decision.Sobolewski added that he hopes to at-tract “as many companies as possible”to this market, without mentioning aclear target.

Lucian Anghel, president of the BVBand general manager of BCR Pensii, toldBR the platform already exists, but theproposed changes are pending ASF ap-proval. “We want to streamline proce-dures, so that, for instance, you will notneed to go to the ASF to create aprospectus and so on, because this in-creases costs,” said Anghel.

Grappling with undervaluedcompaniesSobolewski built a similar market dur-ing his time as head of the Warsaw StockExchange. He started the New Connectmarket from scratch in 2007, targetingsmall and medium-sized firms thatcould not afford to list on the regularmarket. The number of companieslisted here has grown from 24 in 2007 to439 in June 2014, including some for-eign issuers.

Their market capitalization hassoared from EUR 265 million to EUR 2.4

The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) is aiming to launch a new platform for smaller companies and startupsthis autumn, similar to markets in the UK and Poland, as part of a wider reform effort to make it more accessi-ble to entrepreneurs who want to take their firms public. However, the valuation of the companies seeking to listremains a challenge due to the low liquidity of the market.

Ludwik Sobolewski, CEO of the BVB

Lucian Anghel, president of the BVBand general manager of BCR Pensii

EUR 444 mlnvalue of Electrica IPO

Photo: M

ihai Constantineanu

Photo: M

ihai Constantineanu

8 INTERVIEWwww.business-review.eu


Pharma industry expects update ofreimbursed drugs list by year end

medication really reaches Romanianpatients soon, then we can only wel-come this.

Does the Ministry of Health have enough

specialists to assess these new drugs,

because this was an issue flagged up by

officials?

Certainly, it is a very difficult questionbecause, in general, as Romania did nothave this type of methodology in thepast, there are probably few specialistsin the country. However, what we’reseeing is that there is an intention to ex-pand this department in the drugagency ANM, and some steps have al-ready been taken. On top of that, usingsome examples from other countriesthat have already evaluated these med-

icines could be a good combination ofdeveloping specialists in the countrywhile at the same time trying to get de-cisions on this reimbursement list foreach molecule.

The Ministry of Health will cover the costs

of the 17 new drugs on the list. Who is

going to pay for the rest?

In general, under the current approach,more or less everything should be paidfor by the industry, meaning that thereis a specific budget for pharmaceuticalswith everything above this coveredfully by the industry. Even without anyupdate of the reimbursement list, theindustry is now paying for two free-of-charge medications for ten patients inRomania, so on a quarterly basis we pay

about 20 percent as a claw back.One aspect of the discussions we’re

having with the authorities is how tocover these costs, because obviously onthe short term these new productsmight generate some extra expenses.Our idea is to work on methodologythat will see both parties contribute tothis, because we understand that thestate budget is quite limited and sothere is not enough money to covereverything. On the other hand, it is alsonot possible for everything to be givenfree-of-charge by the industry becauseeverything that we have invested inR&D for these molecules is then givenfree-of-charge to the patients, which isnot feasible.

This is a discussion, and we are ask-ing the authorities for an increase in thisbudget. Quarter-by-quarter or year-by-year, it should increase, but on the otherhand we understand that not every-thing can be covered by the state budget.One idea would be a cost-sharing orrisk-sharing solution.

Is the Ministry of Health talking about in-

creasing the budget for drugs next year?

There is contradictory news in this re-spect. Certainly, as we believe that thebudget process is not closed, we arecontinuously asking for an increase. Butalso, the decision makers should under-stand that we, as an innovative industry,

∫ OVIDIU POSIRCA

How did you receive the news that the

government had put 17 new drugs on the

reimbursement list this spring?

I have to say with mixed feelings. Onone hand, this constitutes a greatachievement after six years without anynew products becoming reimbursablein Romania, so it is certainly a good andbig step forward. But on the other hand,we have to say it is only a small part ofthe story because orphan drugs by defi-nition are treatments for diseases thatare very rare. So this will certainly helpsome Romanian patients who are cur-rently struggling without proper med-ication, but we are talking about acouple of thousand of patients in totalwho might benefit. The remaining list(e.n. new drugs pending approval)would help another couple of hundredthousand patients to have better qualitymedication, live longer or enjoy a betterquality of life. So, we are happy but weare waiting for the further steps to makethese remaining products available toRomanian patients.

How many drugs are currently awaiting

the approval of the Ministry of Health?

It is hard to say. I can tell you that lastyear when we had legislation in force,there were more than 170 drugs waitingfor reimbursement. In the meantimesome new medications have probablybeen registered in Romania as well,with marketing authorizations, and in-tended for reimbursement, so it shouldbe more than the 170 we had last year.

What is Nicolae Baniciou, the minister of

health, telling you about the update of the

list?

We try to stay in close discussion withhim. As investors, we want to partnerwith the authorities to find solutions tomake these new products available.This creates a short-term financial bur-den, because obviously the state has topay for these products, but we also tryto explain to the authorities that in themedium and long term it brings hugeeconomic value for the country, whichcan even be measured in GDP valuesand in financials. So, on one hand, wewere slightly dismayed that a newmethodology and a new way of updat-ing the reimbursement list was to be im-plemented. On the other hand, if

Gabor Sztaniszlav, president of the Local American Working Group (LAWG), an association comprising innovative pharma firms with R&D facilities in the US, says that the list of reimbursed drugs should be updatedby the end of this year. He estimates that more than 170 new drugs are awaiting inclusion, with the overall market set to go into the red unless the Ministry of Health approves the biggest update of the list since 2008.

May 2014 – present LAWG presidentApril 2013 – present ARPIM boardmemberMarch 2013 – present country direc-tor, Amgen Romania2011 – 2013 senior manager com-mercial, Hungary, and Center of Ex-cellence CEE at Amgen, Hungarysenior manager, oncology businessunit, at Amgen Hungary

He graduated from the SemmelweisUniversity, has a Pharm.D. in Phar-macology and holds an MBA degree(distance learning program) from theUniversity of Durham

CV Gabor Sztaniszlav

Photo: M

ihai Constantineanu

INTERVIEW 9www.business-review.eu Business Review | July 7 - 13, 2014

cannot cover everything, so that is whywe are continuously asking for an in-crease in the budget, even excluding thenew medication reimbursement list up-date. Again, this 20 percent we are pay-ing in claw back tax is not sustainable onthe long term, and what is even moredifficult is that it is absolutely unpre-dictable. We do not know how muchtax we will have to pay until the invoiceor the demand for the tax reaches us.We want a more predictable and sus-tainable tax methodology. What is alsoimportant to mention about the clawback tax is that when it was introducedapproximately three years ago, it wasmeant as an intermediary measure, dueto the economic crisis. We kind ofagreed and accepted this, and con-tributed to surviving this difficult pe-riod. But Romania is now one of thefastest growing economies in Europe,

so we believe that since the country isrecovering it is time to start reinvestingsome of this growth, not necessarilyonly in this segment, but in broaderterms for healthcare.

How is the list of reimbursed drugs up-

dated by other EU members?

It varies country by country. There arecountries where they update the reim-bursement list even on a monthly basis.A positive example is Germany, whereafter the marketing authorization isgranted, the product becomes reim-bursed more or less immediately. Whatis also important is that countries withsimilar economic situations to that ofRomania carry out more frequent up-dates of the reimbursement list, eitheron a yearly or half-yearly basis.

One of the reasons that we now havethis issue is that the list has not been up-dated for six years, so all these issuesdragged on and now it is very difficultto solve them in one go.

Going forward, do you think this list

should be updated yearly?

Yearly, or half-yearly in the ideal case,but certainly it is important to have apredictable and transparent way of up-dating it on a regular basis. To the bestof our knowledge, the authorities areaiming for this, so we want to partnerthem to make it happen.

At the end of the day, what is impor-tant is that these medicines really reach

Romanian patients through pharmacies,and still we must say that even for these17 orphan medicines, they are physi-cally not yet available to Romanian pa-tients. Hopefully in the next couple ofweeks this will happen. We are waitingeagerly for the big update of the reim-bursement list and not only for the nec-essary legislation, but for theseproducts to physically reach the pa-tients.

When do you believe this will happen?

I hope it will happen as soon as possible.The authorities have pledged that it willhappen by the end of this year.

Do you know if there are new drugs

awaiting approval whose patents expire

this year?

What I know for certain is that there areinnovative products that have alreadylost their patents, but in the meantimethey have not become reimbursed inRomania. This creates a very difficultsituation for the manufacturers and de-velopers, as huge investments are madein the R&D of a certain product – aboutUSD 1 billion to develop a molecule andmarket it – and if the patent expires be-fore it is marketed it makes companieshesitate about how much and how longto invest in the development.

What is the outlook for the pharma in-

dustry in the second half of this year?

These are certainly difficult times. The

original projections, according to thedata providers, showed growth ofaround 2.7-3 percent for this year, but atthat time it was assumed that the reim-bursed new products would reach themarket. Now, knowing that the prod-ucts are most probably not getting reim-bursed on the market, the latestprojections are about -0.3 percent, butagain a lot depends on how and whenthe new products enter the market. Inthe last quarter, the market was alreadyin negative territory so my personal be-lief is that the market will decline invalue this year.

What is the profile of the Local American

Working Group?

LAWG is an association consisting of tencompanies with research and develop-ment sites in the US, and which are alsopresent in the Romanian pharmaceuti-cal market, so we are either American-based companies or big pharmaceuticalfirms with R&D sites in the US. The aimof this group is to represent the interestsof the companies and investments inpharmaceutical development, so we arevery interested in innovation and devel-opment. Of course, at the end of the dayour objective is to help Romanian pa-tients but also other LAWG affiliates inother European countries to help localpatients gain access to these innovativemedications.

[email protected]

LAWG members AbbVie

Amgen

AstraZeneca

Bristol Myers Squibb

Eli Lilly

GlaxoSmithKline

Janssen of Johnson & Johnson

Merck Sharp & Dohme

Novartis

Pfizer

10 LINKSwww.business-review.eu


Telenav CEO: Local team developingproducts for international customersWith the takeover of mobile location technology firm skobbler earlier this year, Telenav, creator of the Scout app,extended its operations to Romania, and now has an office in Cluj-Napoca. Co-founder, president and CEO HPJin tells Business Review what new products the American company is working on and how its Romanian operations fit into its overall game plan.

EMEA advertising director: music app Shazam hasmore than 2 million local usersWhile Shazam currently has no office in Europe, the app developer is present in Romania via affiliated agencyMediacafe. Josh Partridge, director, EMEA advertising at Shazam, tells BR where the service is headed next.

∫ OTILIA HARAGA

“We recently switched to Open-StreetMap (OSM) data for our Scout forAndroid and Scout for iPhone personal-ized GPS navigation apps in the US.OpenStreetMap, the ‘Wikipedia ofMaps,’ is 100 percent crowd-sourced,”Jin, who was a speaker at this year’sTechsylvania in Cluj, told BR, explain-ing that the application enables edits tobe published every minute, resulting inmaps that are often more detailed andup-to-date than commercially availableones.

“Through a rebrand of the popularskobbler GPS Navigation app for iOSand Android, Scout is now available inover 50 app store markets with mapsand navigation for almost 200 countries,including Romania. skobbler’s GPS Nav-igation app was the first professionalOSM navigation app in the world,” Jintells BR.

His firm acquired skobbler in Janu-ary for approximately USD 19.2 millionin cash and USD 4.6 million of companycommon stock, according to a Telenavpress release.

With offices in Germany and Roma-

nia, skobbler was the first company tolaunch a commercial navigation appusing OSM for both Android and iOS de-vices, which is available in app stores in49 regions with worldwide map cover-age, according to Jin.

GPS Navigation by Scout is availablein Romania for both iOS and Androidand is the top ranked paid GPS naviga-

tion app in the Apple App Store in Ro-mania, according to Jin.

Recently, Telenav launched a new Scout for Developers program, fea-turing a new Scout OSM Maps andNavigation SDK. “It is the first commer-cial-grade navigation solution based onOSM for mobile app developers world-wide. It is also the first to offer seamlesshybrid (online and offline) map technol-ogy. The Scout for Developers programincludes a new Scout OSM Maps API(application programming interface) fordesktop and mobile websites. (…) Thissolution is dramatically different fromother options available, like the Googleor Apple Maps API, which provide verylimited customization around look andfeel or branding,” says Jin.

Telenav’s headquarters are in Sun-nyvale, California. Employees from var-ious departments, including productdevelopment, engineering, marketing,customer support, human resources, fi-nance and business development, workthere, according to Jin.

The firm has other US offices in LosAngeles and Detroit.

In South America, Telenav has an of-fice in Sao Paulo that supports its SouthAmerican mobile carrier solutions.

In China, Telenav has locations inShanghai and Xi’ian, “primarily consist-ing of engineers who support all of ourproducts, including Scout for Phonesand Scout for Cars,” says the CEO.

Finally, in Europe, Telenav has oper-ations in Berlin, Germany and Cluj-Napoca.

“Most of the team members in Cluj-Napoca joined us as part of the recentacquisition of skobbler, as this was thelocation of one of skobbler’s main of-fices. This team continues to focus ondeveloping Scout navigation technol-ogy and products for international cus-tomers, consumers and Auto OEMs,”says Jin.

More than half of Telenav’s overallteam works in R&D and engineering.

In Romania, the firm has a staff ofapproximately 80. “These employeesare engineers and product developerswith deep expertise and experience de-veloping OSM-based GPS navigation,”said Jin. “We continue to remain fo-cused on building great OSM-basednavigation products and haven’t an-nounced any additional expansion atthis time.”

[email protected]

HP Jin, co-founder, president and CEOof Telenav

∫ OTILIA HARAGA

“What’s that song?” “Hang on, I’ll justlook it up on Shazam!” Probably one ofthe most frequent conversations be-tween music lovers since Shazam ap-peared, which is why it is currently oneof the world’s most downloaded apps,with more than 450 million peopleusing the service in 200 countries.

“We monetize the service in threeways: Shazam is responsible for 7 per-cent of the world’s digital music salesthrough strong partnerships withiTunes, Amazon and Google play. It alsogenerates revenue through in-app ad-vertising. Finally, the Shazam-enabledads that you see on television are the

company’s fastest-growing source ofrevenue,” Josh Partridge, the company’sdirector for EMEA advertising, who at-tended this year’s ICEEFest, told BR.

Presently, the firm has offices in theUK, the US and Australia. “While wecurrently have no offices in Europe, wework with a number of affiliate agencies,including Mediacafe in Romania. Theseagencies help us extend the reach of thework Shazam is doing in television,specifically advertising,” said Partridge.

The director quotes research by NPD,which found that one of the top activi-ties that people want to do when watch-ing television is to get more informationabout the products they see advertised.

“What we have observed is that peo-ple who use their smartphones ortablets to engage with advertising are

three times as likely to interact furtherwith the brand, twice as likely to talkabout the brand, and have a greater fu-ture intent and brand affinity,” he says.

Currently, over 450 TV ad campaignsfrom A-list global brands have leveragedShazam for TV to “continue and com-plement” their 30-second spots in sev-eral minutes of engagement on mobiledevices like smartphones, iPads andtablets. In Romania, these brands so farinclude KFC and Pepsi, says Partridge.

“Going forward, we will now be ableto retarget any user who has ‘Shazamed’a specific commercial. For example, ifsomeone ‘Shazams’ a Jaguar campaign,we will be able not just to give them acustomized message to complementthe TV commercial, but to reach outagain to those users in the following

weeks to help Jaguar continue its mes-saging,” Partridge says.

Music lovers can use various otherapps to broaden their melodic horizons.One of them is Soundwave, available forfree to iOS and Android users, whichcan track what they play via other serv-ices such as YouTube, Pandora, iTunes,Spotify, Deezer, 8Tracks or Rdio.

Another music app that offers accessto more than 20 million songs is Spotify,which allows users to shuffle any artistor album for free. Pandora, meanwhile,is a widely used app for listening to on-line radio on a mobile phone. AndSoundCloud is an application for fanswho want to discover and share newmusic, which can be used to record andshare music from the smartphone.

[email protected]

LINKS11www.business-review.eu Business Review | July 7 - 13, 2014

Romanian Holiday: vacationvideo goes viralA Dutch tourist’s vacation video detailing a trip to Romania last year received an impressive 328,000 views justone week after it was uploaded onto the Vimeo platform. The 2 minute 46 second clip shows Peter Schagen andhis Romanian girlfriend, Andreea Bercu, traveling by train, dining out in Bucharest, partying at a concert and en-joying other holiday activities. Commentators have compared the video favorably with official promotion efforts.

∫ DIANA PETRESCU

Schagen, an Amsterdam-based videomontage freelancer, has received ashower of compliments over the pastweek from local media outlets and thepublic for his “pro-bono” promotion ofthe country.

“I was really surprised when I foundout my video had had so much impactin Romania and I never would haveguessed something like that could hap-pen. From the moment it went viral Ihave gotten so many nice messagesfrom Romanian people on Facebookand Vimeo about how much they likedit,” Schagen told BR.

BR asked advertising specialists toweigh in on the video’s success. Marius

Rosu, creative partner at GAV, believesit is very important to let foreigners talkabout Romania.

“Peter Schagen’s video achieved viral-ity and struck a chord with the audiencebecause it was based on a healthy, hon-est background, resulting from the edi-tor’s positive experience in our country.The image quality is good and it speaksin a friendly manner about everythingthat is Romania, without artifice. Tohave foreigners speak about Romania ina positive note is very important, but wehave to provide them with an environ-ment to do that,” he told us.

Ana-Maria Olaru, strategic planner atCohn&Jansen JWT, argues that the film-maker’s girlfriend, Bercu, was also animportant factor in the video’s success.

“The clip went viral because of the

author’s authentic experience: you cantell how in love he is with this Roman-ian woman,” Olaru told BR.

The clip’s success prompted favor-able comparisons with the video adsproduced for the Carpathian Gardencampaign. Romanian media high-lighted the fact that this was free pro-motion, whereas a series of video adspaid for by the public purse to supportthe Carpathian Garden brand cost EUR80,000, according to dailybusiness.ro.

Valentin Suciu, creative partner atJazz, says that this is an age where theintent behind a piece of content is justas important as its technical aspects.

“His video was made for friends witha clear intention. It isn’t about Romania;it is a love story. A clip that pays tributeto the time the couple spent together,

eating and chilling out in a country thatjust happens to be Romania. TheCarpathian Garden video is a collectionof unconvincing postcards. It is profes-sionally edited but its lack of imagina-tion manages to make it look cheaperthan the Dutchman’s clip. We live in acentury where the true value of a pic-ture is in its intent. There is no clear in-tent in the Carpathian Garden video.Neither is there any authenticity,” Suciuargues.

Scan this code to watchthe video on business-review.eu and readmore from Peter Schagen

[email protected]

12 CITYwww.business-review.eu


School’s out for summerand kids camp it up

OANA VASILIU

As temperatures rise, AC units whirand summer vacations get underway,local kids have been summer camp-hopping. Summer camp is an oppor-tunity for children to enhance theirpersonal development, life abilitiesand social skills, cultivating inde-pendence while learning behaviors tosmooth their journey to adulthood.

“Activities organized in summercamps are designed to help childrendevelop their self-esteem throughleadership roles that every child canassume during camp,” says Catalina

Florea, executive director of AsociatiaTelefonul Copilului. She adds thatcamp is a unique opportunity for kids to interact with others in a lessstructured medium than school, encouraging them to take their own decisions and increase their self-confidence.

Going to camp also means respect-ing others and obeying the rules of co-existence for 24 hours a day. Childrencannot abandon work on their pro-posed activities because their parentsare standing by to step in and resolvethe tasks, and this obliges them to as-sume responsibility for their actionsand respect goals.

“The advantages of spending timethis way during the school holidayscan be seen after the children returnhome. When we see them satisfied,proud of themselves, ready to showoff the ‘maturity’ they have devel-oped during camp, then we can saywe have made a good investment.The biggest achievement for a child ishaving managed to ‘survive’ thecamp without parents. However,many children lose the skills acquiredduring summer camp unless they aresupported and encouraged by parentsand other family members,” con-cludes Florea.

Programs typically include per-

Every June, as the academic year ends, parents begin to wonder how they’ll keep their children busy throughoutthe long school holiday. To help them out, BR asked the organizers of various summer camps – both nationaland international – what activities and facilities they offer and what skills participants stand to gain.

sonal development skills, sports andadventure activities. Medical servicesare on hand, and transportation from Bucharest to the camp site is included. Organizers interviewed byBR said that most summer camps provide at least three meals a day(with some serving fruit snacks between meals), plus accommodationin separate rooms with bathroom facilities.

Discover RomaniaDalina Borcan, administrator and or-ganizer of the Happy Faces camp inAlba County, told BR that the proce-dures to apply to run a school camp

An awfully big adventure: children develop coping skills, self-confidence and independence through the challenges of summer camp, say organizers

Photo: P

rogresive Sports

CITY 13www.business-review.euBusiness Review | July 7 - 13, 2014

have changed drastically this year,and many schoolteachers now refuseto get involved in this type of activitybecause of the bureaucracy. Underthese conditions, some parents take their child to a camp themselves.The program that Borcan runs forchildren aged 5 to 16 includes discov-ering national heritage landmarkssuch as Ramet Monastery and RametCanyon, plus the city Alba Iulia with its historical buildings: theCitadel Alba Carolina, ReunificationCathedral, Roman Catholic Cathedral,Unification Museum and Union Hall. Additionally, participants canvisit the salt mine in Turda, Corvin’sCastle in Hunedoara, Sarmisegetuza,see the bisons of Hateg and take the funicular railway up to Deva’sCitadel.

In Busteni, Brasov County, AndreiStefan of Progressive Sports runsboth summer and winter campswhere children learn mostly survivaltechniques and adventure is at theheart of all activities. He told BR thatover 400 students followed his pro-grams last year with a similar numberexpected this year.

In its first year of activity, Ana Maria Malaestean of Investin Edutold Business Review that the camp she organizes in Petrosani,Hunedoara County, is run in English,with five specializations: drama, photography, creative writing, tripsand adventure sports. Accommoda-tion is provided by the University of Petrosani on its campus and theteachers are young adults from theUK.

Ioana Bineata of ATGR & Old LineTravel hosted over 1,200 children lastyear at camps in Transfagarasan, Val-cea County; Moeciu, Brasov County;and Sighisoara, Mures County and a

similar number of attendees are ex-pected this year too, with all placesnow booked. The most popular pur-suits are adventure activities such asalpinism, flying fox (zip line) andarchery, as well as team-buildinggames and trekking.

In Avrig, Sibiu County, ClaudiaSuhov of Kidster leads sports camp and personal development ac-tivities for 8- to 14-year-olds. Last year, almost 100 children at-tended, with the program focusing on team games, developing disciplineand taking part in challenges and contests.

Craita Moisa, executive director of Super Tabere, recommends Brasovas a summer camp destination for its adventure activities, such as alpinism, caving, self-defense,archery, trekking and outdoor sur-vival. Last year, almost 100 youngpeople came to the camp, which isalso held over winter. All participantsreceive a DVD with pictures andvideos as a memento of their timethere.

Going abroadInternational summer camps allowparticipants to practice a foreign lan-guage and discover some of the greatlandmarks of the world. DanielaPavoni, general director of MirunetteInternational Education, told BR thatlast year over 600 teenagers took partin their trips, with 500 already signedup for this year’s overseas activities(places are still available). The mostpopular destinations are Legoland,Harry Potter’s Studio Production, theLondon Eye, Shard, British Museumand Madame Tussauds in the UK,plus Universal Studios, Disneylandand NASA in the US. Prices run fromEUR 300 to EUR 3,000.

Cristiana Ungureanu of RegionalAir Tours, which has run the projecttabere.com in Romania since 1993, offers summers camps at interna-tional schools, giving local pupils access to educational programs incountries such as the UK, Germany,France, Switzerland, Spain and the US. For a summer camp in the UK,costs start from GBP 1,300 for twoweeks, reaching GBP 2,900 if theteenagers undertake admission pro-grams for British universities or leadership programs. Last year, over 150 Romanian students went on international trips with the organization, a number set to be exceeded this year.

[email protected]

Source: Compiled by Business Review

Saddle up: participants enjoy a less structured environment than school, in which to develop social skills and teamwork ina new kind of environment

Sheer fun: kids are encouraged toovercome physical tests

Rock on: some camps include visits tonatural attractions

Photo: P

rogresive SportsP

hoto: Progresive Sports

Photo: Super Tabere

14 CITYwww.business-review.eu


FOUNDING EDITOR Bill AveryPUBLISHER Anca IonitaEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Simona Fodor JOURNALISTS Otilia Haraga - seniorjournalist, Simona Bazavan, Ovidiu Posirca, Oana Vasiliu COPY EDITOR Debbie Stowe PHOTO EDITOR: Mihai ConstantineanuLAYOUT Beatric e Gheorghiu ART DIRECTOR Alexandru Oriean

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR George MoiseSALES & EVENTS DIRECTOROana MolodoiSALES & EVENTS

Sales managers: Ana-Maria Nedelcu,Oana Albu, Raluca ComanescuMARKETING

Ana-Maria Stanca, Ana Maria Andrei,Iulia MizganPRODUCTION Dan MitroiDISTRI BUTION Eugen Musat

PUBLISHERBloc Notes Media ADDRESSNo. 10 Italiana St., 2nd floor, ap. 3Bucharest, Romania LANDLINEEditorial: 031.040.09.32Office: [email protected]@[email protected]

ISSN No. 1453 - 729X

Poiana Lupului, Garana,

Caras-Severin county

July 10-13

For four days, international jazz musicwill emanate from the Romanianmountains, via the small village ofGarana.

Considered a contemporary Wood-stock, the festival will unfold in theheart of the Western Carpathians.Having developed over the decadesinto an international artist settlement,Garana (50 km by car from Timisoaraairport or 20 minutes from Resita trainstation) will host Europe’s only open-air jazz festival, now on its 18th run.

This year’s lineup features theAdam Bałdych Imaginary Quartet,Andy Sheppard Trio Libero, Dave Dou-glas and The Riverside Quartet, theMarius Neset Quartet, Elena MindruFinnection, Joey DeFrancesco Trio, UlfWakenius Band, Arve Henriksen Band,

Tiberian, Pedro Negrescu Trio, TheCrimson ProjeKCt, Kimmo Pohjonen,Stian Westerhus, Mike Stern / BillEvans Band, Tom Harrell Colors of aDream and JazzyBit.

The Timis Online publication notedin February, when the first big namesof the lineup such as the Crimson Pro-jeKCt, Joey DeFranesco and MariusNeset were announced, that local ho-tels had already been fully booked bythe event’s loyal fans. Accommodationremains available from locals offeringrooms in their houses or in tents.

The Crimson ProjeKCt are on theirfirst European tour, and will bring toGarana the legacy of King Crimson,which started in England back in 1969.Meanwhile, Tony Levin, famous for hiselectric bass, was previously in Ro-mania for the Peter Gabriel concert inMay of this year.

[email protected]

Garana-teed a good time: four days of quality jazz in the Carpathians

DEBBIE STOWE

Director: Guillaume CanetStarring: Clive Owen, Billy Crudup,Mila Kunis, Marion CotillardOn at: Grand Cinema & More, Holly-wood Multiplex, Movieplex Cinema,Cinema City Cotroceni, CinematecaUnion, Elvira Popescu, NCRR

“So there’s a n*****, a k*** and a w** andthey get surrounded by Indians...” Sobegins Blood Ties, managing a remark-able four racial slurs in as many seconds– surely a record for movie opening lines.A shootout is soon underway. Armedrobbery, drugs and prostitution ensue.Guillaume Canet’s crime thriller is notfor the fainthearted.

With epic ambitions and a big debtto Martin Scorsese, Canet follows the re-lationship between two brothers – a copand a robber – and their loved ones in1970s Brooklyn. Chris (Clive Owen) isthe felon, fresh out of prison. He movesin with Frank (Billy Crudup) – awkwardliving arrangements given that the latteris an NYPD detective. Frank sets Chrisup with a legitimate job at a friend’sgarage and helps him rebuild bridgeswith family, including their cancer-stricken father (James Caan) and Chris’sphenomenally furious former wifeMonica (Marion Cotillard).

The ex-con’s efforts to go straight arescuppered by his criminal past – luckilyfor the viewer, as 144 minutes of CliveOwen tinkering with cars might havebegun to drag – and Chris soon falls back

in with his old associates. Yep, justwhen he thought he was out… So frater-nal loyalty is set against Frank’s desireto Do the Right Thing and Chris’s inten-tion to make a lot of money by robbingand shooting people.

With the period Brooklyn setting,Italian-American characters, familyfocus, expansive scope and irresistibleupbeat soundtrack, the most obviousreference is Goodfellas (1990), while thejuxtaposition of cops and crims recalls1995’s Heat. However, the violencecommitted by Ray Liotta’s Henry Hilland Robert De Niro’s Neil McCauley isminimized in Scorsese’s and MichaelMann’s classics, enabling the viewer tosympathize with the two gangsters de-spite their criminality. By contrast, Chrisis shown to be ruthless and brutal in hispursuit of the loot.

This jars with other aspects of themovie, such as his devotion to new girl-friend Natalie (Mila Kunis). While God-father-era films upheld the twistedstandard that it’s okay to knock yourwoman about once you’ve “given heryour name”, Blood Ties is fortunatelymore progressive, with both Chris andFrank trying to treat their partners right.

The main tonal discord, however,comes from the barnstorming sound-track, chock full of golden soul, rock andpop hits. It’s hard to dispassionatelycondemn the carnage playing out onscreen while singing and foot-tappingalong to Sam Cooke, The Crystals et al.

The classy cast put in solid turns(notwithstanding Owen’s blue-collarBrooklyn and Cotillard’s Italian-Ameri-can accents being infiltrated by their na-tive English and French tones).Cotillard’s spurned moll is muchmeatier than actresses’ typical help-mate roles in mob dramas, and Kunisand Zoe Saldana, as Frank’s marriedlove interest, also leave an impression.

Blood Ties is not in the league of thefilms it emulates – partly due to an end-ing that relies too much on implausiblyperfect timing. But it’s a rewarding re-working of familiar material, with asoundtrack as powerful as its bad guy.

[email protected]

FILM REVIEW

Blood Ties

Owen goal: criminal Chris (Clive Owen,here with Mila Kunis) is aiming high

DON’T MISS

GARANA JAZZ FESTIVAL

Business Review Issue 25/2014 July 7 - 13

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