Foreign contracts push Imsat turnover up to 44m euros

Imsat Bucharest, an industrial automation company, estimates turnover will reach 44 million euros this year, up 35% on last year.

“This growth is due to the numerous contracts we have signed over the last few years,” says Stefan Varfalvi, Imsat chairman.

Imsat won a contract worth 21 million dollars (17.5 million euros) in Syria, consisting in works linked to the extraction of water from oil.

The company has recently finalised works for one of the Renault plants in France and for Lafarge”s cement plants based in Romania and abroad.

Imsat also purchased the assets of the Giurgiu-based container plants belonging to Contrasimex company, a deal that amounted to about 2.5 million euros.

“The container market is declining because of competition against cheap imports from China. We will automate containers and turn them into mobile command rooms we supply to General Electric. We hope to put the container market back on an ascending trend,” Verfalvi said.

The company signed a 10 million-euro contract with General Electric, for the delivery of electrical panels and command rooms.

Imsat continues works for corridors IV and VII of railway transportation and operations as sub-entrepreneur for French company Comau. Collaboration between Imsat and the Romanian Railway Company (CFR) regards the automation of some railway sections.

Imsat started delivering installations to the French company Saint Gobain as well, within the glass plant of Calarasi, an investment worth above 100 million euros which will reshape the entire area of the Danube harbour. Imsat has a highly diversified range of activities: telecom constructions, voice-data and video transmission networks, security and access control systems, automations and electrical equipment for industrial applications and railways.

At the same time, the company works with the cement industry, an activity that has been expanded considerably over the last years.

The company currently works with several Lafarge cement plants, based in South Africa. In 2003, Imsat completed works at the cement plant of Alesd, and last year had contracts with two cement plants from Honduras and Jordan.

“At the end of this year, there will be a tender for the modernisation of the plant in Campulung, which we hope to win,” says the Imsat chairman.

Imsat is 90% owned by investment fund Broadhurst, managed by New Century Holdings. catalin.lupoaie@zf.ro