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Interview with
Mr. Emilian Dobrescu,
General Manager
March 7th, 2000
Contact:
13-15, Energeticienilor Blvd., sector 3,
74568 Bucharest, Romania, P.O.Box 19-17
Contact persons:
Emilian Dobrescu -General Manager
Tel.: 40 (1) 323 87 67
Fax: 40 (1) 327 54 35
E-mail: emilian.dobrescu@ro.abb.com
Cristian Secosan - Sales Director Romania
Tel.: 40 (1) 327 54 67
Fax: 40 (1) 327 54 27
E-mail: cristian.secosan@ro.abb.com
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NOTE: Please note that during the period when this interview was taken ( 7, March, 2000) until the day of publishing, ALSTOM aquired ABB's share in their 50-50 joint company ABB ALSTOM POWER which is now 100% ALSTOM and will be re-named ALSTOM Power. This means that ABB ALSTOM POWER Romania SRL (mentioned in interview) is now an ALSTOM company, and will be re-named accordingly in the months to come. Following to this acquisition ALSTOM has a new combined turnover of more than 20 billion Euros and employs over 140 000 people in 70 countries. ALSTOM Power is a world leader in the supply of power generation equipment and services and employs around 50 000 people world-wide."
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Could you explain to us who are you? i.e., what does your name mean?
ABB ALSTOM POWER is a 50-50 joint company created from the power generation activities of ABB and ALSTOM. To respond to market conditions, ABB and ALSTOM have taken the initiative by creating a truly global company with the full capability to provide solutions for our customers worldwide. We are not ABB and nor ALSTOM and we are very proud because ABB ALSTOM POWER is a name of a world leader in equipment for power generation field.
But, CONEL, the Romanian power generation company is the leader of this field in Romania...
CONEL is the Romanian leader in power generation. And in order to generate power they need equipment for maintenance and operation improvement at a high technical level. Our company - ABB ALSTOM POWER Romania SRL - is providing them equipment, parts and qualified services according to their needs and requests. Our biggest customer in Romania is CONEL. Electricity is firstly generated, and then transmitted and distributed. Transmission and distribution are not our targets. What we manufacture is the equipment that can generate electrical and thermal energy.
In fact, despite who your partners are, you are considered a new company with a new name, is that so?
Yes, for the time being our name is ABB ALSTOM POWER Romania SRL, although that might change soon. We belong to the international group ABB ALSTOM POWER, who has companies in 100 countries all over the world.
Are you directly under these companies (ABB or ALSTOM) or you are a totally independent one?
ABB and ALSTOM are our shareholders. These two well-known companies, ABB and ALSTOM, have put together their segments which deal with the power generation activities excepting those of nuclear from ABB and heavy duty gas turbines from ALSTOM The newly formed Company is a world leader in the supply of power generation services and equipment, committed to technological innovation and excellence.ABB ALSTOM POWER is a multinational company present in 100 countries all over the world which employs about 58,000 people.
ABB ALSTOM POWER Romania SRL is acting as an independent company.
ABB is present on the Romanian market since 1992, and ever since it has been involved in all kinds of activities, including power generation. When did the company started splitting into smaller sections?
ABB's philosophy is to be local, "think global and act local" is its motto. This is the way in which they promoted their local presence, through the investment in local companies and bringing them to western standards. ABB invested in Romania since 1992 by setting up a joint venture with an existing company, at that time called Energoreparatii Afterwards during several years they bought this company and a few other small ones incorporating them to ABB. In the meantime, ALSTOM was also present in the country through other companies and important projects. Both ABB and ALSTOM have been present in Romania for a number of years, starting during 1990-1992.
To be honest, although at that time there were not so much privatization facilities for foreign investors in comparison to nowadays, both these foreign companies-ABB and ALSTOM- came in Romania with the same purpose: to bring new projects and to develop and modernize the Romanian power system. If our country needs economical improvements and if they have realistic projects (not just wishes) or if they have strategic plans for the next century, then they come here to invest. This is how they think However, despite of all the difficulties existing at that time in Romania , ABB and ALSTOM had the courage to invest here because they have trust in their modern technology and local competence accumulated in years of experience. They succeeded and they are very satisfied of accomplishments. | How much have you invested in Romania? Did a lot of things have to be up-dated?
ABB and ALSTOM when decided to invest in Romania have considered the technical education of the employees which is indeed very good. Although, there have been a lot to be changed such as: the mentality, the accounting system, and other similar things that have to be understood by the people that never have dealt with this kind of things. And all these required money. If you take the total combined investment done in these companies is around US$ 40 million. Only a part of this sum was used for purchasing the shares to become a joint venture. The rest was for training the personnel, changing the system, upgrading the workshops, building new facilities necessary in modern technologies, buying new instruments and equipments for quality assurance etc.
We are specially proud about the mentality of the people which is finally in line with that of international corporations. We are accepted everywhere around the world, having the same standards in each one of our companies from the West. There is no discrimination within the group and this, as you can imagine, was not so easy to achieve. As I have mentioned before we are producing equipment for power plants. This process needs a long manufacturing time and the economic answer is not as quick as, let's say,consummer goods. What I mean to say is that all these systems and processes are very complicated and of course it takes time and money. We are proud to say that we have succeeded to increase five times the revenue. We are the first in our market.
To sum it up you are a new company that started in June, 1999, with a new name, a new project, etc. What are your immediate plans?
We are involved in many important projects. We are not creating a new company by changing the name. What is new here is the joint effort and technology of ABB and ALSTOM. Through the merge the level of technology has increased. Each company came with its own technologies and its own systems and products. From technical point of view we are more technically now than ever. In fact, we are more aggressive now than before the merging. We became much stronger. This is very important for a market which is, frankly speaking, a difficult one. Competition is very strong and this merging gave us more flexibility and power on the market.Our company is looking to be efficient in what is to install, upgrade, rehabilitate, offer new solutions in order to satisfy the customer.
Can you give us some figures just to get an idea about the size of ABB ALSTOM POWER Romania SRL?
We are employing around 900 people. All these people have been trained and some of them have been also trained outside. We permanently invest in human resources. The revenues of the company are in the range of US$ 40-60 million.
You have been established here for a number years. Are you planning also covering the countries in the area?
We have many branches in Romania located to different power plants because the customer needs us to give him -anytime he needs- the right technical solution. For this, sometimes we receive support from our sister companies from Sweden, Italy, Germany , which are working close to us. We have very good engineers, we have access to all international technologies and our products are very competitive. Of course, at the beginning we had local clients, but after short time we begun to have orders from outsider clients from: Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, USA, Chile, Mexico, India, etc. Practically, in all these years we have made exports on 5 continents: Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa.
Do you have a final message to transmit to our readers?
Romania is offering today a lot of possibilities for foreign investors. Of course, the new investments must be made in accordance to the needs and possibilities offered by this region. The investor will be satisfied if he will insist and look for the opportunities. We are an example for everybody. Our shareholders came in Romania in 1992 when the foreign investors were not so many, and despite of all problems arose during this time they succeeded and created a "success story". Now we have not only a strong position on the local market. In fact, we are leading it. |
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© World INvestment NEws, 2000.
This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Romania published in Forbes Global.
July 24th 2000 Issue.
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