Hungarian oil group MOL doubled its turnover on the Romanian market, reaching sales worth 150-160 million dollars in 2003. However, 2003 was the fifth consecutive year the group ended with losses.
So far, almost all fuel distribution companies last year reported a return to profitability – Lukoil (Russia), OMV (Austria), the Anglo-Dutch group Shell, Petrom and Rompetrol group run by businessman Dinu Patriciu, which thus managed to better adjust to a yet non-liberalised market, characterised by a much lower margin as compared to neighbouring markets. Agip (Italy) and MOL (Hungary) were this time much closer to a break-even, but in the end failed to meet their targets.
“MOL Romania (the local branch of the group) is in full swing, with a network of 69 stations, and is to reach 80 stations by the end of this year. Last year, our sales came to 150-160 million dollars; as regards profitability, our revenues/expenses ratio was slightly negative, but we almost reached a balance,” stated Karoly Robak, executive manager of MOL Romania. He has held this position since late last year, replacing Aliz Kosza, who took over the management of Orkla Foods Romania.
MOL last year acquired 23 stations from Shell Romania, in a deal estimated to 20-25 million dollars. Asked by Ziarul Financiar whether MOL is interested to further acquire gas stations from the other operators on the market, Zoltan Aldott, strategic operations manager with MOL group, answered: “Why not? In case there should be companies interested in selling?! But I do not know of many such companies.”
“The Romanian market is very important to us, because of its high potential and development opportunities. MOL entered the market in 1995 and has since made significant investments, becoming one of the most important single investors in Romania,” said Aldott.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro