GFR heads toward 120m-euro turnover

Grampet group, which includes freight rail company Grup Feroviar Roman, carriage repair company Remar Pascani, as well as Reva Simeria and Turist Semenic, will reach turnover worth 350m euros this year, up 40% against the same period last year.

“Turnover for the entire Grampet group is going to rise by around 40% this year. Remar Pascani boasted the biggest increase, followed by Grup Feroviar Roman, which saw a 40% advance in the first eight months of the year, to turnover worth 74m euros,” said Gruia Stoica, who controls Grampet group. The biggest company of Grampet group is Grup Feroviar Romania, which registered turnover worth 85m euros last year and will hit around 120m euros this year. Grup Feroviar Roman is also the biggest private freight rail transport company on a market that includes Servtrans and Unifertrans. CFR Marfa, a state-owned company, still holds the biggest market share. While at the level of annual turnover, the state-owned company boasts turnover more than six times higher than that of GFR (550m euros in 2007-CFR Marfa’s turnover, according to the Finance Ministry), the private transport company last year reported higher net income, of 10m euros, compared with 1.4m euros in the case of CFR Marfa. At the same time, Remar Pascani in the first eight months of the year reached turnover worth 26-27m euros, compared with 26.6m euros in the entire 2007. Grampet holds majority stakes in two rail transporters in Hungary and Bulgaria, Train Hungary and the Bulgarian Railway Company, and last year acquired 70% in Serbia’s carriage repair and construction company, Zelvoz Smedervo. Grampet also plans to buy a plant in Hungary and is to participate in a tender for Mav Magyar Allamvasutak. In order to do that, the group contracted a 6.5m-euro loan from Alpha Bank. GFR’s policy is to hold a rolling stock repair and maintenance plant on the markets it operates on. The carriage repair and maintenance facilities Grampet has outside Romania serves companies part of the group, as well as external customers. “We’ll further develop in the region, but we’ll be more cautious, though we do not operate in a field affected by the global crisis,” said Stoica. Group Feroviar Roman set up, together with CFR Marfa and Raiffeisen Bank, a company that specialises in carriage rental – Rolling Stock Company.