Contract with US army takes Roman Brasov into the black

Roman Brasov, the truck producer, controlled by businessman Ioan Neculaie, managed to break even in the first half of this year, amid a fourfold increase in turnover, to 37.7 million euros (133.5m RON). The company in late June derived net income worth around 34,000 euros compared with a 2.3 million-euro loss registered in the corresponding period of last year. Turnover rose mainly due to a contract the company signed last December with the US Defence Ministry. The contract is worth 130 million euros, with the Americans having pledged to buy around 1,000 trucks manufactured by Roman. In May, Roman Brasov fulfilled its contractual obligations and delivered the first lot of trucks. To finance production, the company contracted a loan worth 4.2 million euros (15m RON) from Turkish-owned bank Finansbank. At the end of June, Roman Brasov had debts standing at 29 million euros (103.67m RON), of which debts that had to be paid over a period of up to one year amounted to 25.4 million euros (90.5m RON). At the same time, the company’s arrears were worth 11.4 million euros (40.8m RON).