SERBIA:

Telekom spends EUR 310 million buying cable operators
Telekom Srbija has paid EUR 108 million for the Radijus Vektor cable operator and around EUR 12.5 million for AVcom, the company told Danas. Their expansion in the cable internet market in the past few months is now worth around EUR 310 million after the purchase of Kopernikus in November 2018 for around EUR 195 million. As previously stated by Vladimir Lucic, Telekom’s coordinator for the internet and multimedia, the national telecom has thereby gained 120,000 new internet and TV users, formerly users of Radijus Vektor, as well as 18,000 former AVcom users.
Source: Ekapija

Investors to get 3,000 to 7,000 euros per job in 2019 – No more state subsidies for international trade and hotels
The budget of Serbia for 2019 features RSD 15 billion for subsidies for new jobs, but primarily for the employment of workers at factories and partly in the sector of information and communications technologies. The new feature is that there are no more subsidies for the services of international trade and hotel accommodation, Politika writes. The daily writes that this is RSD 2.5 billion more than last year and the biggest amount in the 12 years since subsidies were implemented and adds that the Ministry of Economy says that the regulations are independent of each other and that new ones will be adopted pertaining to the food industry.
Source: Ekapija

Tendering for sale of Lasta to start by end-March – Selection of consulting and auditing company in progress
The Republic of Serbia plans to put 77% of the oldest transport company in Serbia, Lasta, up for sale by the end of March, the director general of the company, Toni Gajic, told Tanjug, as reported by RTS. The selection of a consulting and auditing company which should evaluate the property and the capital of the company, which currently employs close to two thousand people, by mid-February, is in progress. The future purchaser will have to obligate to invest in the company’s rolling stock and keep the number of employees. Although the sale of Lasta was planned last year, the company’s management asked at the time for a conversion of debts of around RSD 700 million into the company’s capital.
Source: Ekapija

REGION:

AERO: Belgrade Airport serviced 5.64rm passengers in 2018
Belgrade Airport (AERO) serviced 5.64m of passengers in FY 2018, which is up 5.4% versus 2017, the company reported. Former management expected 5.8-6m. The last quarter of 2018 saw 1.22m passengers, up 2% vs. 4Q17, the same report says.
Source: Seebiz, Ilirika

INO:

Dow rises more than 100 points, Netflix leads tech rally, European markets flat ahead of crucial Brexit vote, Italian banks struggle
Stocks rose on Tuesday as Netflix led a rally in tech-related names after news that it would hike its monthly membership prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 155.75 points to 24,065.59 as Microsoft and UnitedHealth outperformed. The S&P 500 gained 1.07%, while Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 1.7 percent to 7,023.83. Stocks pared some of their gains after U.K. lawmakers voted against the Brexit plans of U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, worrying investors that global economic growth could take a hit as a result.
Shares of Netflix jumped 6.5 percent after a report said the company it would hike prices to its monthly memberships by 13 to 18 percent. This would be Netflix’s biggest price hike since it launched its streaming service more than a decade ago.
J.P. Morgan Chase rose nearly 1 percent, erasing earlier losses. The stock initially fell after the banking giant reported lower-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter. The miss was J.P. Morgan’s first in 15 quarters.
Wells Fargo, meanwhile, posted earnings that topped expectations. Its sales, however, fell short of estimates. The bank also said it will operate under the Federal Reserve’s growth cap for longer than expected. Other banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are scheduled to report quarterly earnings later this week. European stocks lacked firm direction on Tuesday, as market participants braced for a showdown in Westminster over the U.K. government’s Brexit plan. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up around 0.3 percent during afternoon deals, with most sectors and all major bourses in positive territory.
Italian banks slumped toward the bottom of the index during Tuesday’s trade. It comes after reports suggested the European Central Bank could be set to ask Rome’s notoriously fragile lenders to set aside further capital to deal with impaired loans. Italy’s Ubi Banca and Banco BPM were the worst performers, with shares tumbling nearly 5 percent.
Elsewhere, official data released showed Europe’s largest economy grew at its weakest rate in five years in 2018. Economic output in Germany increased 1.5 percent last year, compared to 2.2 percent in 2017.
Source: CNBC