Prospectiuni Bucuresti, a geological survey firm owned by businessman Ovidiu Tender, is undergoing some major modifications after the entire management team was changed, with expats filling key positions.
By yearend, around 400 employees of the 1,100 full-time ones will leave the company, in the wake of some moves to boost the weight of international operations in the firm's turnover. "(...) The redundancy programme comes as the company had to implement a new business model to take into account domestic market growth and diversification," says Gehrig Schultz, Prospectiuni CEO. Beside him, the management team now includes British-born Simon Wagner in the CFO position and Tim Branch as vice-president for business development.
"In my six months here, things have changed significantly. Many clients have cut their budgets as regards their orders to us, but what's important is that 80% of turnover budgeted for this year come from contracts already or about to be signed, and Romgaz and Petrom, our main clients, have not modified their expense plans, but on the contrary. We're thinking of 2010, though," Schultz says.
"We have higher work volumes, but the type of requested works is different from last year. We have all types of services in our field, but customers have become selective. While before they used to take the Mercedes of services, they are now satisfied with a medium car. Nonetheless, we expect revenues worth 200m RON (50m euros) this year, up from last year's 142.5m RON (39m euros) as a result of rising work volumes," Schultz adds.
According to Simon Wagner, the company is not facing customer payment delays and planned investments will be mainly self-financed.
As for international expansion plans, these are aimed at cutting the company's dependence on several internal clients by gaining work from abroad weighing as much as 40% in total turnover.
"(...) There are several ways to do this: we take part in international tenders, joint ventures with international companies, as well as possible acquisitions. I don't think this is a good time for an acquisition. In 2010, we'll see some interesting opportunities," Schultz says. "We're also considering putting some new business models into practice (...)," Prospectiuni CEO adds.
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