Butan Gas Romania, the domestic branch of Italian group Butan Gas, controlled by businessman Iosif Constantin Dragan, at the end of 2005 posted profit worth 4.03m RON (1.11 million euros), after having logged losses of 2.43 million RON (0.7m euros) in 2004.
"In 2005, the company became profitable, following a 14% surge in the amounts of gas sold, which directly translated into approximately 30% higher net turnover and in lower operating costs," stated Florin Preda, Butan Gas Romania general manager.
Turnover derived by the GPL operator went up by approximately 30% compared with the corresponding period of 2004, reaching a level of 156.67 million RON (43.5m euros). Consequently, Butan Gas managed to meet the business targets set at the beginning of the year, which pointed to turnover worth 44 million euros.
The number of employees also rose, by about 10%, to 341 people. The domestic GPL market is put at about 125-130 million euros annually, with the leaders including Petrom, the biggest Romanian company, which entered the portfolio of OMV Austrian oil group, and Shell Gas Romania. The Dutch giant has only GPL operations on the Romanian market after having sold its petrol stations. Shell made the strategic decision to completely withdraw from the petrol station market, by selling Shell Romania SRL business in two tranches to Hungarian group MOL, for 72-73 million euros.
Shell Gas Romania is a joint venture in which Petrom owns a stake of 44%, with the rest being held by Shell. Both Petrom and Shell Gas Romania each own a market share of around 29-30%.
Companies operating on this market include Rompetrol, Crimbo Gas and other international companies that also have petrol stations in Romania.
Butan Gas owns about 21% of the market, in line with its own estimates.
The GPL market has been completely deregulated, unlike the natural gas market, which is scheduled for liberalisation in 2007. "Hiding" the true price of natural gas has had an impact on the GPL market players. Yet, over recent years the price of natural gas has followed a strong ascending trend with a view to being adjusted to the level of European prices.
Butan Gas in 2004 reorganised its operations and changed almost the entire management of the company. At that time, the company said it aimed to gain the leading position on the GPL market over the next 2-3 years.
The company plans to boost its market share from 20% to 30% by the end of this year, raise its turnover and expand the network of GPL stations to over 150 outlets.
The majority shareholder in the company is Butan Gas Spa Milano, with a stake of more than 90%.
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