Giurgiu-based Romstrade company, controlled by businessman NeluIordache, has become the biggest builder on the domestic market andalso the first that has gone beyond the 300m-euro threshold, owingto the numerous infrastructure contracts sealed with the state.Romstrade has thus outrun Hidroconstructia, with 265m euros in2009, which had led in this ranking in the past 10 years.
Iordache has this way managed to defeat other Romanianentrepreneurs in the past three years, known as kings of asphalt,such as Dorinel Umbrarescu (owner of Spedition UMB of Bacau),Costel Casuneanu (controlling PA & CO International), TheodorBerna (owner of Tehnologica Radion) or Dan Besciu (owning EuroConstruct Trading '98), as well as foreign companies such asStrabag (Austria), Bechtel (the US), Colas (France) or Astaldi(Italy).
"We haven't finalised the 2009 budget, we still have Decemberdata to collect, but we're close to what we'd targeted, theequivalent of 320m euros," Gheorghe Racaru, strategy anddevelopment manager with the group of firms controlled by NeluIordache, told ZF.
At present, asphalt kings' stake is not just sealing contractswith the state, but also recouping debts for works operated in thepast years.
Things got worse last year, with Costel Casuneanu, for instance,being investigated by the National Anticorruption Department (DNA)in a case related to last year's infrastructure tenders.
Nelu Iordache, 42, who has never agreed on a press interview,entered the big league of "asphalt kings" in 2007, during LudovicOrban's office as transport minister.
Then, Romstrade turnover got close to 200m euros, after it hadstood at just 18.5m euros a year before.
The company expects an increase by at least 15-20%, to 380million euros this year.
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