Calburean looks to foreign markets to offset local decline in demand

Gheorghe Calburean, owner of Dafora Medias (DAFR), leader of
the Romanian drilling market, says the reduction in the volume of
works in the sector has cut the number of players to just a few and
does not anticipate a market rebound yet. He says he is trying to
compensate for the decline in domestic demand by expansion on
foreign markets.
Dafora’s main competitors are Foraj Sonde Craiova (FOSB), held
by the Cristescu brothers, and Foraj Sonde Mures (FOSP), controlled
by businessman Vasile Aron.
Dafora has recently managed to attract the first drilling work
with German equipment on which it spent 16 million euros in 2007,
with the works carried out at a drill held by Petrom in the Bacau
county area.
Dafora invested around 35-40 million euros in drilling
equipment during the times of economic boom in 2006-2008, with the
main source of funding being bank loans, so the company is rather
indebted. At the end of March 2010, Dafora had 290 million RON (69
million euros) in overall debt and assets worth 463 million RON
(110 million euros).