COS giving Russians a hard time

Combinatul de Oteluri Speciale (Special Steels Plant – COS) Targoviste posted losses for the first nine months of the year, with turnover decreasing as compared with the year-ago period. The goal of the new majority shareholder, Russia’s Conares Group, which bought into the company several months ago is to attain $130 million turnover in the next five years. The plant’s nine-month turnover went down to 2,149bn ROL ($65.3 million) from 2,302bn ROL ($79.3 million) in the corresponding period of last year. Whereas the company posted gross profit worth 34.8bn ROL ($1.2 million) for the nine months ended September 30, 2001, it posted 224bn ROL ($6.8 million) losses for the nine months ended September 30, 2002. The Conares officials could not be reached for comment by press time. The company’s total assets exceeded liabilities by 184bn ROL ($6.3 million) at the end of last September. However, current liabilities have come to outstrip assets by 12.7bn ROL (some $400,000) in the meantime. The Conares Group bought the controlling interests in COS Targoviste through Conares Trading AG for about $2 million at the end of August. ZF