Top 52 foreign companies awarded state contracts

The ranking made by Business Standard includes only foreign companies and is based on data provided by the National Authority that monitors public acquisitions, information from the e-licitatie.ro and licitatiepublica.ro websites, the Official Gazette, the Romanian Commodities Exchange, the website of the National Company for Highways and National Roads, and from companies.

The total value of deals signed in 2008 by the 52 companies in the ranking amounts to €1.85 billion.

Companies operating on the road infrastructure segment, such as Italian Astaldi, French Colas, or Spanish FCC Construccion lead in the ranking.

Five major categories of foreign contractors were visible in 2008: road builders, infrastructure equipment providers, pharmaceutical producers and importers, IT&C products and service suppliers, and car dealers. These categories are based on the state’s main public spending categories in recent years. Many of the contracts involved partial or full European financing.

The main beneficiary of public spending in 2008 was infrastructure, as is the case in 2009. The ranking leaders are some of the largest contractors for the local infrastructure. They were already receiving payments last year for contracts signed in previous years.

U.S. Bechtel contractor, which committed in 2004 to build some 200 kilometers of highway, received some €300 million worth of payments last year. Colas ranks second, with deals totaling €86.25 mln, contracted in association with other companies. It also received some €36 mln in payments for older contracts.

Equipment suppliers also benefited from significant amounts of public funds based on contracts signed last year. The German Siemens company is one of the traditional suppliers of the state-owned gas electricity transportation company Transelectrica. French Alstom group is likewise one of the top suppliers for electricity producers. However, both companies declined to provide the exact amount of those contracts. Swedish ABB company said that two thirds of its revenues in 2008 were made up of payments based on deals signed with the state.

Companies on the pharmaceutical and IT&C markets follow. The local branch of Hoffmann La Roche pharmaceutical producer is the top player on the local market. The company’s General Manager, Dan Zamonea, said that most products sold by Roche Romania on the local market are treatments for illness categories that are subsidized by the social security program.

In the IT field, the largest contract was signed by Intrarom, the local branch of Greek Intracom, in excess of €100 million. As far as the auto industry is concerned, Midocar dealer signed a deal for several hundreds of emergency vehicles, with the value of the contract possibly reaching some €35 million, depending on the final order.