Romanian Daily

Industry rally boosts Rondocarton revenues

IulianBulandra — 2006-07-21T05:13:00+00:00

The Cluj-based Rondocarton company, a producer of corrugated cardboard, in the first six months of this year registered turnover worth 12.8 million euros (46 million RON), up 15% from the corresponding period of last year.

"The packaging market is witnessing a slight increase this year in comparison with the last few years, when annual had not been higher than 5%. The trend of the market has generated higher industrial output in our case, too," Teofil Campean, general manager of Rondocarton, told ZF.

According to him, the results in the first half of the year were also triggered by the expansion of the customer portfolio.

In the wake of packaging market growth, company's representatives have projected turnover worth around 25 million euros this year. In 2005, Rondocarton registered turnover standing at 22 million euros, 10% higher than in 2004, after the company's management had previously announced, at the beginning of last year, forecasts suggesting that the respective indicator would remain flat or even decline amid shrinking orders from domestic customers. The Cluj-based company has a market share put at 18% and its main competitors are Romcarton, Dunapack and Ecopack. The company exports its products to countries such as Italy, Hungary, Switzerland, France, Serbia and the Republic of Moldova, with exports accounting for 30% of turnover.

Rondocarton management has earmarked investments worth approximately 4 million euros for this year, which will result in an expansion of the company's production capacities by around 7%. According to the information provided by company representatives, the annual production of the Cluj-based plant stands at 30,000 tonnes.

In 2004 the company invested over 1.5 million euros in a new production space located on an area of 6,500 square metres.

Beside investments in the production facility, the Cluj-based manufacturer of corrugated cardboard has also allotted 2.8 million euros to acquire new production machinery. Last year, investments in machinery were further increased, amounting to around 2 million euros.

Rondocarton was set up in 1999 in Cluj-Napoca and currently has 200 employees.

The Austrian Rondo Ganahl Aktiengesellschaft firm owns 92% in Rondocarton, with the rest of stock belonging to several Romanian and Austrian individuals. The group has more than 850 employees and in 2003 posted turnover worth 160 million euros.

The Romanian market of corrugated cardboard products, estimated to be worth approximately 120 million euros, is divided between eight manufacturers with total annual production revolving around 210,000 tonnes. Of this quantity, 50% is turned by these producers into packaging, while the remainder is sold as corrugated cardboard sheets to other transformation companies or furniture producers.

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Celhart Donaris Ups Share Capital By 7 Mln RON

IulianBulandra — 2006-07-19T07:59:00+00:00

Shareholders in Celhart Donaris S.A. - Braila on July 13th convened and authorized a share capital increase by 7,412,545 RON, equal to 2,963,018 shares subscribed by Ecopack S.A. - Ghimbav for 2,100,000 EUR under a preemptive right.

Following this operation, the company has a share capital of 32,875,435 RON, divided into 13,149,774 shares with a face value of 2.5 RON. Ecopack - Ghimbav controls the company with 82.76 percent, followed by SIF Banat - Crisana with 16,17 percent.

Celhart shares are traded on RASDAQ under the symbol CEDO. The latest transaction, dated February 16th, was concluded for 1.2 RON/share.

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Somes Dej turnover stagnates

IulianBulandra — 2006-07-13T07:46:00+00:00

Cellulose and paper manufacturer Somes SA Dej, part of the Serviciile Comerciale Romane (SCR - Romanian Commercial Services) group of firms, saw turnover stagnate at about 8.6 million euros in the first three months of this year, a value similar in euros to that seen in the same period of 2005. However, company representatives estimate that turnover will exceed 39.5 million euros this year, against the 34.7 million euros in 2005. "This progression will depend on our production capacities functioning within the normal parameters, on us keeping and developing our markets and on the European currency maintaining its value," said Adrian Itu, general manager of Somes Dej.

The company's profitability was affected by the euro's drop against the RON by 4%. "We tried to fight this phenomenon by adopting a new sales strategy and by refocusing on more lucrative markets, like the domestic market,' specified Itu. According to him, Somes Dej made an operating profit worth some 1.5 million euros in 2005, and this year the company has a budgeted profit worth 3.5 million euros.

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3m-euro losses for Ambro Suceava

IulianBulandra — 2006-06-28T09:38:00+00:00

Ambro Suceava, one of the leading players in the paper and cellulose industry, estimates a turnover worth 31.2 million euros for this year, up from 22.5 million euros last year. In 2005, the company saw losses worth 3 million euros, whereas for this year, it intends to post a profit worth 0.2 million euros. Company representatives had not made any comment on this before this issue was ready for print. In the first quarter of this year, the company reported sales worth some 3.2 million euros. The majority shareholder of Ambro Suceava is Sical from France, with other shareholders including Romcarton Bucharest, and the French owned Rossmann and Sikor companies.

At the beginning of this year, the company performed a capital increase of over 10 million euros. Currently, according to information available on the RASDAQ site, the share capital of Ambro Suceava stands at some 18 million euros.

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InBev invests in PET beer

IulianBulandra — 2006-04-07T07:03:28+00:00

Interbrew Romania, a branch of the international beer producer InBev, recently invested seven million euros for the acquisition of a beer bottling plant for PET (polyethylene terephthalate) lines of beer, according to the company's general director, Mihai Ghyka.
"PET bottled beer covers at the moment 34 percent of the Romanian beer market. We want to compete for the first position," said Ghyka.
According to its own estimates, the company holds a 14 percent market share in the PET beer sector.
Interbrew Romania's production increased in 2005 by 18 percent and the company reported a 140 million euro turnover.
The official said that the company's market share is 22 percent.
InBev has been active in Romania since 1994.

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Vrancart - Adjud Uses Profit To Increase Share Capital

IulianBulandra — 2006-04-07T06:46:31+00:00

Adjud-based paper producer Vrancart concluded last year with a net profit of 4,734,674 lei, down by 4% year-on-year, and revenues of 53,755,041 lei, down from 70,712,422 lei in 2004. Last year's gross profit was 5,557,068 lei, down by 4%.

Last week, the Shareholder Assembly decided to increase the share capital by 4,745,495 lei, equal to 9% of the current share capital. The company will use 4.4 million lei from the net profit made last year and over 295,000 lei from reserves and will issue 47,454,950 shares with a face value of 0.1 lei. The new shares will be proportionally distributed to the existing shareholders.

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Teraplast To Build A New Plant In Brasov

IulianBulandra — 2006-03-09T07:46:14+00:00

Teraplast GP, one of the main domestic PVC producers, will invest around 4.8 million euros to erect a new PVC profile plant in Brasov this year. Construction works will start this month and will be finalised in July.

Stirom: Plastic Packaging Trims Glass Market Growth

IulianBulandra — 2006-02-21T07:50:48+00:00

Stirom Bucharest, a glass packaging producer this year expects turnover worth 155 million RON (about 43 million euros), approximately 27% higher year-on-year, say the company's representatives.

Maillis Romania Sales Up by 8%

IulianBulandra — 2006-02-17T15:54:59+00:00

Maillis Romania announced FY:05 results, according to which sales increased by 8% to €13.52m, while net earnings decreased by 12.7% to €0.83m.

Note that the contribution on the group results is minimal.

The company will proceed to the gradual transfer of part of its productive unit in Italy to Romania.

Marfin analysts said that working costs are substantially lower (c. 1/10) in Romania while along with the size of the local market could provide a comparative advantage to the group.

The transfer is expected to be intensified in 2006-07.

FY:06 estimates for the Romanian subsidiary call for top line growth of 27-28% and bottom line growth of 25-26%.

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15m Euros For Production Capacity Boost

IulianBulandra — 2005-11-21T09:34:27+00:00

Asas Romania, a Romanian-Turkish joint venture operating in the domain of packaging production has started to make investments worth about 15 million euros in order to triple the production capacity of the plant located in Budesti, Calarasi county.

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