Hungarian oil group MOL, one of the leading players in the region, is relying on the Brasov-Bors highway, which is to be built by US Bechtel Corp, as part of its policy to expand its network of filling stations in Romania. The Hungarian company is also considering the possibility of acquiring additional stations, besides the organic growth of its business in Romania. Its future prospects also include branching out to logistics and refineries.
“We are closely monitoring the development of the Brasov-Bors highway: the agreement has been concluded, the project is in progress and works have begun. We have already informed the constructor of our plans to place gas stations along the highway and are awaiting an answer,” Zsolt Hernadi, MOL chairman, told Ziarul Financiar in an exclusive interview.
“As yet, there is no information available as to who exactly has the right to sell fuel on the highway. At the moment, we only know that the company building the highway has been notified of our intentions. It thanked us and promised that our offer would be discussed soon,” the MOL chairman added.
MOL already had a very strong network in Transilvania, from where it began expanding to the rest of the country in order to achieve national coverage. “We have a Network Development Master Plan, which contains measures for every major city, highway and other locations. Using this information, we can constantly optimise all our operations. We have always regarded Romania as a core market in our corporate strategy. We are now focusing on organic growth; above all we would like to improve our presence through greenfield projects, but we are also looking into potential acquisitions,” explained Hernadi.
MOL is currently fighting Austria’s OMV, Poland’s PKN and Russia’s LukOil for supremacy on the Central and Eastern European oil market. MOL, PKN and OMV this summer submitted bids for Romania’s largest oil company, Petrom, with OMV coming out the winner.
Petrom’s acquisition by OMV again brought up the question of the acquisition of the Shell network in Romania of 58 stations, which is now eyed by MOL and by Italy’s Agip, market sources say. MOL bought 23 stations from Shell Romania in the summer of 2003 for around $20-$25 million.
MOL Romania, the local branch of the Hungarian group, finished last year in the red, despite turnover of $160 million. The group’s management says the local branch has this year kept above the breakeven point since the beginning of the year and should end the year in the black.
The Hungarian operator wants to have 80 filling stations opened by the end of this year.