“Such a radical change has never occurred before in our industry,” a top executive in the sector, who wished to remain anonymous, told ZF.
The three management changes come after a very difficult 2012/2013 agricultural season with low cereal volumes, as well as with operating problems due to farmers not meeting a large number of contracts last autumn.
Discretion reigned in all three companies on Tuesday, with no company representative wishing to give official statements.
Gheorghe leaves Ameropa after almost three years
The most surprising CEO change is the departure of Cezar Gheorghe from Ameropa. Since December 2010, when Gheorghe came to Ameropa Grains, the company pursued an aggressive expansion strategy, with the Swiss-held company boosting its turnover four-fold between 2010 and 2012, to EUR200 million.
The interim manager of Ameropa Grains is Markus Wirth, a member in the board of directors of Azomures, another company of the Ameropa group.
Wirth announced on his Linkedin page that his interim mandate runs until the end of 2013, when a new CEO will be elected. The Swiss-born manager does not have experience in agricultural trading, but was previously CEO of cement producer Holcim Romania for almost 7 years.
Beznea joins Marian Andreev
Another important departure for the cereal market is that of Victor Beznea, who had been with the Romanian operations of Dutch-held Nidera for 11 years.
Beznea’s next step is to become involved in the business of Marian Andreev, the owner of Prutul Galati, another local agribusiness group.
The two businessmen have a 20-year history of doing business together, with Nidera’s operations having so far relied on the silo infrastructure of Andreev’s company, sources from the agricultural trading market say.
“He will get involved in a new, independent, company, which will continue to use Prutul infrastructure. The company will be called Prutul Agri Trade, Marian Andreev will have 50% of the shares and the former management of Nidera will share the remaining 50%,” says an industry source.
Tsvetan Iliev was replaced about a month ago by Italian Giovanni Quaglia, a financer known on the market as a specialist in corporate restructuring.
He has a solid history in agribusiness, with an 18-year career at Cargill, and previously working for Bunge between 2007 and 2010, according to information on his LinkedIn page.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)