“In 20 years we built over 1.5 million square meters in around 500 projects,” says Doicescu, whose company built Baneasa Shopping City in Bucharest, hospitals, residential compounds, as well as the new headquarters of the U.S. Embassy in Romania.
Bog’Art, operating mainly in the construction sector, had turnover of EUR105 million in 2011, down by around 10% on the year, amid a decline of the construction market. “Whereas in 2010 we made EUR116 million with 8 projects, last year our turnover was achieved with 25 projects,” Doicescu said. For 2012 the group hopes for an 8% turnover increase, to over EUR113 million.
One of the projects that Bog’Art is currently working on is a 27,000-sqm office building, rented out to UniCredit Tiriac Bank.
The next challenge for Doicescu, after constructing office buildings for major companies such as Vodafone, Rompetrol, Romtelecom and Raiffeisen, is to enter the African market. The company originally tried its luck in Libya. Doicescu is now interested in Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Ivory Coast. “There you have to plan very carefully how to access funds, because not as much money is available as in the Middle East, for instance.”
Doicescu said he is not planning to invest in infrastructure very soon, and focuses more on civilian constructions. He says he is not overlooking any opportunity and plans to enter the niche of building wind farms, a booming sector in the last few years.
Doicescu said he does not have a lot of faith in the evolution of the Romanian economy over the next few years, “considering that the construction sector is completely overlooked, Romanian and foreign investors are not encouraged, and there is no long-term macroeconomic strategy to increase the contribution of constructions to GDP.”
(English version by Daniela Stoican)