Celco: Romanians don't want to be bought by Romanians

Nicolae Dusu, chairman of Celco Constanta, the biggest Romanian-held company on the aircrete market says that he has been probing the market in search of potential acquisition targets but “Romanians do not want to be bought by Romanians”. Celco, whose annual growth rate stands at more than 30%, estimates turnover to reach 33 million euros this year. Local aircrete manufacturers have been taken over by investment funds and strategic players over the last few years, because of the fast-paced growth of the masonry materials market. Investment fund Enterprise Investors took over Macon Deva and Simcor Oradea, Irish CRH group acquired Elpreco Craiova, while Oresa Ventures is in talks to buy Somaco Bucharest. Celco’s majority shareholders, businessmen Ion and Nicolae Dusu, decided to develop the business organically by building a plant to make special aircrete adhesives, as well as a lime factory, in which they invested more than 20 million euros after having turned down several takeover offers.