Bechtel and Enka post 60 million-euro profit for 42 kilometres of motorway

US-based Bechtel, which is building the Transilvania motorway (415 kilometres) and Turkey-based Enka, the main subcontractor of the Americans, have posted total turnover worth 766 million euros and cumulated net profit worth 60 million euros in the last three years. The 2009 financials were supplied by the National Trade Registry Office (ONRC), and reveal that the two companies, which equally split the funds received from the Government, collected a total of 284.6 million euros from Compania Nationala de Autostrazi si Drumuri Nationale (National Motorway and National Road Company) for the work performed.
However, Bechtel and Enka have only completed 42 kilometres of highway (Gilau-Turda), while the other section under construction, Suplacu de Barcau - Bors (64 kilometres) has only been 31% completed.
The amount does not include the debt the state has to Bechtel for work performed in 2009, which amounts to over 200 million euros, and is to be paid in 2010. Bechtel and Enka will therefore collect about one billion euros for the work done so far. The amount is even higher if adding the sums allocated for the expropriation of land, whose value was still unknown at the time the story was ready for print.
"The amount is this high because of the contract. Under the contract, Bechtel would get the advance money for the entire year worth of work at its London-based branch, keep it until October or November, when work had to be justified and then send the foreign currency in Romania, paying subcontractors and suppliers in RON. We removed this issue last year, but it is but one of the explanations for the profit made by Bechtel," says Adrian Ionescu, head of the motorway division of the CNADNR.