Adris Investing 200 Million Kuna into Renovation of Zagreb Hotels
October the 31st, 2021 - The well known Adris Group is set to invest a large sum into the renovation of several Zagreb hotels, as well as into the famous Hotel Marjan down in the City of Split.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, the Adris Group's net profit reached a massive 605 million kuna in the first nine months of this year, compared to a considerably lower figure of 141 million kuna last year, and total revenues rose to 4.51 billion kuna (marking a significant increase of 23 percent), they announced from Adris.
At the same time, the income from the sale of goods and services increased by a quarter, reaching a staggering 4.18 billion kuna. Consolidated profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also stands at 1.065 billion kuna, three percent below the pre-crisis levels of 2019. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to leave its traces on the results of the tourism business, Maistra, although a recovery was recorded in the main part of this year's main tourist season which is promising.
The company recorded 1.2 billion kuna in revenue from sales of goods and services, 79 percent of the figure recorded from back in 2019. EBITDA stood at 602 million kuna, reaching 85 percent of what was realised before the global pandemic struck, as well as net profit 360 million kuna in total. The Istrian part of the tourism business accounted for 86 percent of sales realised back in 2019, Zagreb hotels reached 36 percent of the same, and those down in Dubrovnik reached 44 percent of 2019's results.
Adris has also recently announced 200 million kuna in investments this year, with the continuation of preparations for the renovation projects of Zagreb hotels and the Marjan Hotel down on the coast in Split.
Croatia osiguranje's net profit amounted to 320 million kuna, 9 percent more on an annual basis, with 2.27 billion kuna of total gross premiums written in Croatia (a marked increase of 5 percent).
Cromaris' EBITDA profit also jumped up by more than a quarter, reaching 52 million kuna, while the net result was 12.3 million kuna.
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Croatian Company Podravka Records Fantastic Sales Growth
October the 31st, 2021 - The much loved Croatian company Podravka has been recording some excellent sales growth across important markets, and despite the negative economic circumstances the coronavirus pandemic has dragged the entire world into, things are looking up for this enterprise.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, revenues from the Croatian company Podravka's sales for the first nine months of this year amounted to a very impressive 1,651.4 million kuna, which is 3.9 percent more than what was recorded back during the same period last year. Since last year, due to the poor epidemiological situation, there was an increase in demand for Podravka's products and the creation of increased stocks with customers across almost all markets, making this year's growth is even more significant.
If, for example, we compare the Croatian company Podravka's revenues with the pre-pandemic year of 2019, then revenue growth this year is even more significant, standing at 5.4 percent.
Sales revenue growth this year was achieved in almost all business programmes, among which the most significant growth of 5.2 percent was recorded in the Culinary business programme. The aforementioned growth in this particular segment was achieved mainly due to the growth of revenues from the sale of Universal Food Additives and Soups.
When it comes to sales revenue by region, growth was achieved across all of this company's key markets. Particular emphasis is placed on revenue growth of 9.5 percent in the Western Europe region, where growth was achieved in almost all business programmes, of which the largest growth was generated by the Culinary, Podravka food and Baby food segments.
It is worth noting that the other two most significant regions also achieved sales revenue growth, of which in Central Europe there was a growth of 4.4 percent, while the Adria region achieved sales revenue growth of 2.9 percent.
When we look at the business results of the Podravka Group for the first nine months of this year, an impressive 3,383.5 million kuna in sales revenue was generated. This realisation represents growth of 1.6 percent compared to the year before. Higher sales revenues are the result of revenue growth in two important business segments - Food and Pharmaceuticals. The Nutrition segment generated 2,634 million kuna, while Pharmaceuticals recorded 749.5 million kuna in sales revenue, with the largest contribution from the Prescription Medicines category, which increased by 5.4 percent.
The net profit of the Croatian company Podravka for the aforementioned period amounts to 259.3 million kuna and is higher by 23.4 percent when compared to the comparable period from one year before.
It's worth mentioning that the price of Podravka's shares on September the 30th this year amounted to 664 kuna, while back on December the 31st, 2020, they amounted to 485 kuna, which is a promising increase of 36.9 percent.
For more, check our our dedicated business section.
"Russia Loves Čilić": Marin Secures St. Petersburg Open Final!
October 30, 2021 - Marin Čilić is on fire, advancing to his second final in one week - this time the St. Petersburg Open final!
Croatian tennis player Marin Čilić reached an ATP Tour final for the second week in a row, reports HRT.
After playing in the final of the Moscow tournament a week ago, this week, he reached the final in St. Petersburg, defeating Dutchman Botica van de Zandschulp in the semifinal in just one hour and nine minutes of play (6:3, 6:3).
Čilić completely dominated against the 26-year-old Dutchman, who played in his first semifinal on the ATP Tour on Saturday, served excellently, had a first-serve percentage of 69 percent, and did not allow his opponent a single break point. Moreover, Van de Zandschulp did not even equalize in any of Čilić's service games.
On the other hand, Čilić had one break in the first set, using the third of three tied break points in the sixth game, while in the second set he took the serve twice, the first time at 1:1, and the second time with a 5:3 advantage, which ended the match.
This will be Marin's 35th appearance in an ATP tournament final and the third in 2021. He won Stuttgart in June, his 19th title, while losing in the Moscow final last week.
To win his second title in St. Petersburg, the first of which he won exactly ten years ago, Čilić must face American Taylor Fritz, who in the first semifinal defeated German Jan-Lennard Struff 5:7, 6:1, 6:3.
It will be Fritz's first final in 2021. He last played in the final in Acapulco in February last year, and so far has won only one title in Eastbourne 2019.
Čilić and Fritz met only once, four years ago in Indian Wells, and the American tennis player was better.
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Croatia Again Logs More Than 4,500 New COVID-19 Cases, 30 Deaths
ZAGREB, 30 Oct, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has registered 4,547 new coronavirus cases and 30 patients have died, the national coronavirus crisis management team said on Saturday.
There are currently 25,153 active cases, including 1,330 hospitalised patients, of whom 175 are on ventilators.
Currently 34,838 people are self-isolating.
Since the first registered case of the infection on 25 February 2020, a total of 467,029 people have become infected and of them, 9,198 have died.
A total of 432,678 people have recovered, including 3,115 in the last 24 hours.
So far a total of 3,098,082 people have been tested, including 12,203 in the last 24 hours.
A total of 3,610,412 vaccine doses have been administered, with 47.03% of the total population having been vaccinated, that is, 56.33% of the adult population.
A total of 1,908,486 people have been vaccinated with one shot and 1,795,287 have received both shots, while 113,899 have received the single-dose Jannsen vaccine, which is 53.10% of the adult population.
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Croatia to Get €319 Million in EU Grants to Repair Earthquake Damage in Banovina
ZAGREB, 30 Oct, 2021 - The European Commission has decided to award €319 million in grants to Croatia to help it repair damage caused by the 29 December 2020 earthquake in the central region of Banovina.
The EC said on Friday that it had adopted a decision to award Croatia grants from the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) based on the country's application for the compensation of funds used to repair damage caused by the 29 December earthquake, the Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The EC decision is a draft that will be forwarded to the European Parliament and Council of the EU for further proceedings and the payment will be made once those proceedings are completed.
The ministry recalls that in August 2021 Croatia received a part of an advance in the amount of €41.325 million and under the EC's draft decision, the total amount of grants for damage repair is €319,192,359.
Also, Croatia has so far received €683.7 million in grants to repair damage caused by the 22 March 2020 earthquake in Zagreb. The total amount of grants for earthquake damage repair to be obtained from the EUSF is more than a billion euros, the ministry said.
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Zmajlović, Ostojić and Goldstein President’s Ambassadorial Nominees - Večernji List
ZAGREB, 30 Oct, 2021 - Former Social Democrat minister of the interior Ranko Ostojić was to have been appointed Ambassador to Qatar, Social Democrat Mihael Zmajlović was to have been appointed Ambassador to Montenegro and university professor and former ambassador to France Ivo Goldstein Ambassador to Greece.
Those were nominations that came from the office of President Zoran Milanović, who co-creates foreign policy with the government, but they were flatly rejected by the government, the Večernji List daily of Saturday says.
The Foreign Ministry said it considered the nominations to be partisan and an attempt to secure meal tickets for former party colleagues Ostojić and Zmajlović, who were not re-elected to the parliament while Zmajlović also lost the elections for Zagreb County head.
The ministry also considers that all candidates, notably Goldstein, are politically very active on the left.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, too, has expressed disagreement with Milanović's nominations. Without specifying who he was referring to, he said on Friday that the president was nominating failed Social Democrat county heads who had nothing to do with embassies and diplomacy.
Milanović said on Friday that the issue of ambassadorial nominations was being dealt with by his chief of staff Orsat Miljenić.
The president's other nominations were Nacional weekly reporter Dragan Đurić for Consul-General to Tuzla and Maja Čavlović, but those nominations did not cause controversy in the government.
On the other hand, the ministry proposed appointing diplomat and PM Plenković's advisor Vladimir Drobnjak as Ambassador to the United States, Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) MP Davor Ivo Stier Ambassador to the Vatican, and HDZ member Miro Kovač, who served as foreign minister in the Tihomir Orešković government in 2016, Ambassador to France.
The appointment of new ambassadors, which under the constitution the government and the president have to agree on, reached a deadlock just after New Year, when President Milanović said he would block the regular rotation as he wanted to be a barrier and prevent the HDZ "from taking everything it can," the daily said.
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Hajduk Strategy Until 2027: Two Croatian Titles, Champions League and Europa League Group
October 30, 2021 - The Hajduk strategy until 2027 was presented to fans. President Lukša Jakobušić and Management Board member Ivan Matana spoke at the ceremony, and the strategy developed by Matana was presented by Gordan Kožulj, who today works for Deloitte, which also participated in the strategy development.
Index.hr reports that in the beginning, Kožulj stated Hajduk's clear goals until 2027. In that period, Hajduk wants to win the championship twice, be second in other seasons and win at least one Cup. In addition, they intend to play the Champions League and Europa League qualifiers twice, the Champions League group once, the Europa League group once, and the Conference League group three times. In this competition, one entry into round of 32 and once into the round of 16 is expected. The average age of the A team of the club must be between 24 and 26 years, and every year the Hajduk junior team wants to promote two young players to the first team.
"Hajduk is currently the 140th club in Europe. For all Croatian clubs, including Hajduk, the key is to play in European competitions. Revenues from UEFA are significant for clubs, the value of players is rising, and there is a fight for the national coefficient. Hajduk has played only the preliminaries of the European League during the past five seasons. This Management is not satisfied with that. The Hajduk management believes that Hajduk can be between 80 and 100 on the UEFA rankings. Last year, Milan was 80, and Maribor was 100 with five million euros.
This is an example of clubs with a large budget falling to a lower level and clubs with a small budget, such as Maribor, getting a good result. We took the example of Rapid, Partizan, Legija and AZ Alkmaar. Hajduk and the Management must think about how to reach a budget of at least 20 million euros to achieve the desired goal," Kožulj said.
He also said that the Academy must help to improve results.
"We need to have professional staff who can hone their talent. When we came in 2016, we saw that Hajduk has 40 outside scouts. Only three of them made a report at the end of the year. Today the club has clear contours of an advanced organization," Kožulj said.
The development of the Academy includes the construction of a football camp with fields and ancillary facilities, the development of Hajduk Digital, developing the sales network and strengthening cooperation with sponsors and systematizing operations, establishing a new performance and reward management system, and developing three-year business plans.
In October 2015, Hajduk's then-president Marin Brbić published a three-year work plan and program from 2016 to 2019. Thus, already in the 2015/2016 season, the goal was to win one of the national trophies, and in the 2016/2017 season to be "the most serious candidate to win one of the national trophies and enter the group of UEFA competitions".
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Euro Introduction Referendum: 157 Thousand Signatures Collected in Zagreb
October 30, 2021 - Croatian authorities such as the President, the PM, the FinMin and the HNB have recently commented on the process of euro introduction. Meanwhile, a collection of signatures is being carried out throughout the country to promote a euro introduction referendum to reaffirm the kuna as the official currency in Croatia.
Marko Milanović Litre, Member of Parliament of the Croatian Sovereignists and a representative of the Organizing Committee of the euro introduction referendum initiative Let's Protect the Croatian Kuna, said in Zagreb today that 157,000 signatures had been collected in five days and that the organizers were satisfied with the collection dynamics, reports Index.hr.
The initiative for the euro introduction referendum was launched by the Croatian Sovereignists, the Croatian Party of Rights, the Independent for Croatia, and the Generation of Renewal, and by November 7 they should collect 368,867 valid signatures of citizens.
Signatures are collected at 250 locations throughout the country, and citizens thus declare whether they are in favor of the provision in the Constitution that the currency of the Republic of Croatia is the kuna, which is divided into one hundred lipa, and that the decision to change the currency is made by voters in a referendum.
"In the first five days, thanks to our volunteers, members of the Croatian Party of Rights, and Croatian Sovereignists, we managed to collect 157,000 signatures by 5 pm yesterday'', Milanović Litre told a news conference at the place where signatures are collected in Zagreb's central square.
He expressed satisfaction with the dynamics of collecting signatures.
"At the moment, we are satisfied with the dynamics of collecting signatures, especially after the first day and the media presence we received. It is much clearer to people what we stand for and what our goal is with this referendum initiative, which is greater democracy in Croatia", Milanović Litre said.
He assessed that the ruling party is ignorant of their initiative and stated that Croatia has the right to decide at what point it will accept the euro.
"They can repeat their mantras that it has already been decided in a referendum on joining the EU, which is not true. That is half the truth. Croatia has the right to decide when to adopt the euro. It must not be a decree of one person and his interests, but the decision of the Croatian people to decide on their own destiny", Milanović Litre said, among other things.
"We will fight for the kuna to remain because we are currently in the biggest economic crisis in human history and we cannot rush into a new monetary union that will have its own interests'', said Croatian Sovereign MP Milanović Litre.
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Association Says Is Against Abolishment of Family-Run Retirement Homes
ZAGREB, 30 Oct, 2021 - The association of family-run retirement homes on Friday called on members of the public to join in public consultation on amendments to the Social Welfare Act, noting that the proposal to abolish family-run retirement homes would cause uncertainty for both their users and employees.
"We are against the abolishment of family-run retirement homes which we consider a good type of the social service of providing accommodation for elderly persons," the association said, calling on members of the public to join in consultations on the amendments, to last until 3 November.
It notes that the Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy Ministry had not conducted analyses of the work of family-run homes for senior citizens and the alternatives for their users and employees.
"Family-run retirement homes provide accommodation for more than 6,000 beneficiaries and employ more than 2,000 people," the association says.
Under the new social welfare bill, family-run home for senior citizens have a deadline of five years to reorganise into institutions that are part of the social welfare system, thus complying with requirements on spatial and personnel conditions.
For homes with a smaller number of users, the bill offers the possibility to change to providing foster care.
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Extinct in Croatia in 18th Century, Northern Bald Ibis Lands in Grobničko Polje (VIDEO)
October 30, 2021 - An extremely rare bird, the northern bald ibis, landed in Grobničko Polje near Rijeka. It immediately aroused the interest of scientists and the media because this species became extinct in Croatia in the 18th century.
Her name is Nova, reports Morski.hr.
"Yesterday afternoon, by chance, I saw a strange bird on the telephone pole, and I thought it was a heron. Then, early in the morning, several photographers came in front of my house," said Dorijan Curać.
He said he found out which bird it was online and was delighted that this rare individual had come to his area.
"Then I came back and filmed it from about 2 meters and let it quietly peck at the insects. I also registered it on the Animal tracker application," he added.
The Waldrappteam organization's Facebook page, which highlights the protection of this bird, mentions that Nova flew to the Adriatic coast and across the sea to Croatia, from where it is expected to fly further south. They also say that the bird has deviated from its usual route and should realize it is wrong. Unfortunately, they also remind that in 2019 they had a similar situation, where a flock of protected birds that arrived over the Croatian sky was illegally killed. That is why they ask all those who see this bird share this news so that many people can be informed.
This rare bird normally resides in semi-desert or rocky areas, often near watercourses. It is an endangered species and can be found in North Africa and the Middle East. It is up to 80 centimeters long. Its body is covered with black feathers that, in the sun, have a copper-green and purple glow, a red beak, and red skin on her body, except for the top of her head. When it hatches, it has feathers on its head, and then when it grows, those feathers fall off, and the bird remains 'bald.' Hence the name bald ibis.
It nested in the Pula area and then became extinct in Croatia and Europe due to habitat loss and hunting. However, it is found in many historical sources and is depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphs as "akh" - a symbol of the human soul. As early as 1504, it was declared one of the first protected bird species in Austria, which unfortunately did not save it from extinction, writes the Biom Association.
This species became extinct in Croatia in the 18th century, and the last birds nested in the Pula area. The same fate befell this bird throughout Europe, and habitat loss and hunting are considered the main reasons for its extinction. At the beginning of the 21st century, the world's population of bald ibis was reduced to only 200-250 individuals, which survived in North Africa and the Middle East.
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