Archive: Business | Business

The second-largest online grocer in the Czech Republic, Rohlik.cz has reported its first annual profit since its establishment in 2014, the Czech News Agency reported on Thursday. The retailer expects to see a turnover of 2.5 billion crowns in 2018 and plans to double that figure next year.

The Czech Credit Bureau reports that the number of bankruptcies among small Czech entrepreneurs is the lowest in five years.

According to statistics there were 60 company bankruptcies in the month of July and 377 bankruptcies of small entrepreneurs which is 108 less than in the preceding month.

The drop in bankruptcies among small entrepreneurs is ascribed to the healthy economy, higher wages and growing demand for their products and services both from companies and individuals.

Dozens of Czech families who made payments on new apartments in the 1990s found themselves high and dry when the building firm involved collapsed. Now they have been ordered to evacuate their homes forthwith after losing a long-running legal battle, a verdict that has come in for broad condemnation.

The Czech external trade balance in goods ended in a surplus of 6.9 billion crowns in May, down 8.2 billion crowns in annual terms, according to preliminary data published by the Czech Statistical Office on Monday.

Year−on−year, the total balance was unfavourably influenced mainly by a decrease of surplus in 'motor vehicles' and a larger deficit in 'coke and refined petroleum products', 'other transport equipment' and 'chemicals and chemical products'. A lower deficit in 'computer, electronic and optical products' had the main positive effect on the total trade balance.

From January to May, the trade balance surplus reached 80.9 billion crowns, a decrease of 13.2 billion crowns in annual terms. From the start of 2018, exports decreased by 2.6% year-on-year and imports increased by 0.6%.

A co-author of the Czech Insolvency Act of 2006 has warned that a proposed amendment to the law would “unintentionally” give debt relief to hundreds of thousands of people. Tomáš Richter, a renowned expert on both Czech and European insolvency law, said in an interview that lax rules set out in the current amendment could potentially mean adding another 600,000-700,000 to the list of people qualifying for debt relief.

UDI Group plans to list shares this autumn on the Prague Stock Exchange’s new Start market which aims to encourage investment in small and mid-sized companies. In October, the Czech developer hopes to raise CZK 300 million through an initial public offering (IPO).

Finnish Transtech Oy, a subsidiary of the Czech company Škoda Transportation, will deliver ten Artic trams to the city of Helsinki. The price of the contract amounts to 750 million crowns.

There are currently 48 trams of the same type operating in the Finnish capital. As of 2021, they will also operate on a newly built track in the city of Tampere. The Plzeň-based transport company Škoda Transportation acquired a controlling stake in Finland’s sole manufacturer of rail vehicles abd trams in August 2015.

The trade surplus widened in April compared with a year earlier. It climbed to 15.8 billion crowns, 3.8 billion more than in the same period in 2017.

The main factors fuelling the surplus were car, machinery, and electrical equipment exports. The main dents in the surplus came from increased imports of chemicals and coke.

The Czech trade surplus so far this year stands at 73.6 billion crowns. The statistical office said the overall trend is for decreasing exports and stagnating imports.

The Czech retail sales boom speeded up in April with a 5.6 percent increase on spending levels compared with a year earlier. March sales rose at the rate of 3.9 percent.

Sales rose fastest in non-food items, food sales were almost unchanged. And the boom in sales via the Internet and via mail order companies continued with a 20.3 percent annual increase according to the Czech Statistical Office.

Czech steelmakers are likely to be hit by US duties as a trade war looms with the United States. While direct Czech exports to the United States are relatively small, the main concern is the knock-on effect as tradition markets are flooded with steel originally destined for the US.