Marian Nastase, 37, vice-president with Alro Slatina (ALR), has been appointed as chief financial officer with Vimetco Dutch group, the majority shareholder in Alro, owned by Russian oligarch Vitali Machitsky, after Rolf Steinmann's resignation.
Nastase is the head of all the operations Vimetco runs in Romania, from the steel industry to natural gas and electricity trade. Vimetco owns the only aluminium producer in the country and controls around 8% of Romania's natural gas imports. Besides Romania, Vimetco group, listed in London, also operates in China and Sierra Leone.
As Vimetco's chief financial officer, Marian Nastase will coordinate the financial operations of a group with turnover worth 1.56bn dollars (above 1bn euros) in 2007 and 230m-dollar net income. Vimetco has around 11,000 employees in Romania and China.
Vimetco is feeling the impact of the financial crisis and the steep decline in aluminium prices. The company on Friday also announced the resignation of Pierre Baillot, who had taken over the positions of chairman and interim CEO just three months before, after the resignation of Cristian Wuest, in December 2008. Russian businessman Vitali Machitsky is to take over the position of group chairman, while Frank Müller was appointed CEO.
The group late last year announced it would cut production both in Romania and in China as a result of plummeting aluminium prices and that it would lay off part of its employees. The group may also have trouble paying off its debts, because of its dwindling revenues. At the end of the first half of 2008, Vimetco had current debts worth 1.29bn dollars, of which 585m dollars were short-term banking loans. The group's total debts amounted to 1.85bn dollars, while its assets were worth 3.11bn dollars.
In Romania, the group's operations are grouped under Alro Slatina's umbrella. Alro last year reached turnover worth 1.97bn RON (535m euros), down 4%, and net income worth 244m RON (66.3m euros), 44% lower than in 2007. For this year, Alro plans to cut production by around 65,000 tonnes, from 288,000 tonnes in 2008, and its number of employees from 3,300 last year.
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