Gefco considers acquisitions in Romania

French-held Gefco, a part of the Peugeot-Citro’n group, intends to strengthen its position in Central and Eastern Europe, both via organic growth and via acquisitions, with its turnover increase amounting to 58.6% in the region, to 261 million euros. “Romania is one of the targets of our acquisition policy. We cannot reveal if we are currently under negotiations of not, but we are monitoring the market,” said Denis Renard, general manager of Gefco Romania. In Central and Eastern Europe, the company has subsidiaries in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine. Renard specified that Gefco was not targeting very large acquisitions in Romania, such as that of Romtrans, a company that is to be bought by Schenker – a division of Deutsche Bank – for around 90 million euros. In Romania, Gefco has seen its turnover double over the last few years, and expects sales to reach 24 million euros in 2008.