Tinmar Ind is the largest energy trader on the competitive market, beating even state-run Electrica on this segment last year, despite the latter serving 3.5 million consumers.
Tinmar Ind has only 70 employees, who, from behind their monitors in the offices in the Sky Tower building, take electricity from the major generation companies and transfer it to the industrial facilities of some of the largest companies in Romania – Dacia, Lidl, Lukoil, Arctic and Metro, which are its customers.
“Our goals for the coming period are to boost the amount of energy traded abroad, using international trading platforms and securing a 14% share of the domestic competitive market,” Tinmar Ind officials said.
Augustin Oancea, 42, did his first energy transaction in 2007, when Tinmar Ind was a company with only EUR15 million revenue. Back in 2007, the leading trader in this business was Energy Holding, a company that had grown on the back of state-owned hydropower producer Hidroelectrica and bilateral contracts for cheap power. At that time Energy Holding’s revenue reached EUR350 million, its highest ever.
While Energy Holding accounted for 19% of the energy trading market back in 2007, Tinmar Ind was just a mere name among “Others” in a footnote in in Romania’s energy market regulator ANRE reports.
Tinmar Ind became the largest private energy trader last year, while Energy Holding turned into a mere name in a footnote.
Despite the spectacular growth of his business, Augustin Oancea would rather stay away from the public eye.
The businessman has rarely been seen in public and has not given any interviews to the press to discuss the expansion of his business. One of his few public appearances was when he attended the launch of one of his solar park projects.
Tinmar Ind has always said that unlike Energy Holding, it has never had any bilateral contracts with state-owned companies, choosing to buy all the power it sells from the OPCOM energy exchange. Its revenue is expected to reach EUR650 million this year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)