Contracts won lately show the Horpos brothers’ company is following the model of other Romanian builders that have managed to see spectacular turnover increases in recent years as infrastructure deals with the state have proven extremely lucrative.
Whereas so far the category of “asphalt kings” included names such as Costel Casuneanu of PA&CO International, Dorinel Umbrarescu of Spedition IMB or Dan Besciu of Euroconstruct Trading ’98 and Nelu Iordache of Romstrade, Straco is catching up fast and has come to win tenders with a cumulated value of half a billion euros, according to ZF estimates based on public and Electronic System for Public Acquisitions information.
Thus, the company set up in 2003 grew from a EUR578,000 in 2003 to almost EUR50 million last year, an 85-fold increase.
There is not much information about the company’s shareholders, as they have repeatedly turned down ZF’s requests for comment over time.
The infrastructure contracts Straco has been awarded over the past year and a half have been largely gained in a consortium, both with foreign and Romanian companies, and the most important work by value is the construction of Deva-Orastie highway, which the company won together with Austria’s Strabag in 2010.
Straco last year ranked 38th among the companies that sealed the biggest deals with the state as it signed two contracts, without teaming up with other companies, worth a total 161 million lei (EUR38.3 million), according to ZF information.
The group’s expansion even allowed it to acquire Bucharest-based Genesis International at the peak of the crisis in 2009.
Straco Grup last year boosted its turnover by almost 30%, to some EUR50 million even as the constructions market shrank by around 20%. The company is likely to further increase its turnover in 2011 and in the coming years, as the largest contracts, i.e. those namely those for highway construction, were won in the last months of 2010 and the first half of 2011.
In 2009, when the company had a EUR38.7 million turnover, according to the Trade Registry, Straco Grup was not even among the ten largest Romanian builders. However, 2011 is likely to bring a different ranking given that Straco Grup has been gaining contract after contract lately.
(EUR1=RON4.2272)