The company, Vantage Driller Roco, takes the top spot in a preliminary ranking by losses in 2016 ahead of energy holding CE Hunedoara, which posted 858 million lei (EUR188 million), Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries (RON484 million) and ArcelorMittal Galati (RON271 million).
Vantage Driller Roco posted RON1.5 billion losses.
This is not the first time this company broke a record. In 2014 it operated the highest capital increase, $890 million. It got a new capital inflow last month, $361 million, according to Trade Registry data. The money came from the Cyprus-based owners.
The Finance Ministry, Economy Ministry and the tax authority (ANAF) did not provide any information about the financial activity of the company so far.
The Finance Ministry website shows Vantage Driller Roco as having zero employees, less than RON600,000 turnover and operating under a `Renting and leasing of other machinery, equipment and tangible goods’ NACE code. No officials of the company can be found at the listed phone number to explain the record results.
Trade Registry data show Vantage Driller Roco to have only one owner, Vantage Holdings Cyprus, an off-shore company registered in Nicosia, Cyprus, whose managers are Georgiana Vasile and Ronald J. Nelson. The latter also runs Vantage Drilling International based in Houston, Texas, according to his LinkedIn profile. The parent company is registered in the Cayman Islands.
The company worked with BDO Audit for the audit of its financial results, but the auditor did not provide comment on the company at ZF’s request, citing confidentiality reasons.
The US company did not return ZF’s requests for comment on its operations in Romania.
Vantage Driller Roco was established in 2013 and posted RON1.7 billion revenue and RON3.2 billion expenses in 2016. It also reported almost RON32 million debt to the Finance Ministry. Turnover in 2013-2016 stood at RON243 million.
Despite the record loss of 2016, in 2015 it posted RON223 million profit and had one employee.
Its parent company is an offshore established in 2007 which operates a fleet of offshore rigs and provides drilling contracts to oil companies throughout the world. (EUR1=RON4.5710)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)