Romanian metals company Vimetco N.V. and compatriot national gas firm Conef-Gaz announced on Monday that it plans a public offering of aluminium producer Alro SA (Alro Slatina).
Few details were available in the domestic press, but Alro’s general manager Gheorghe Dobra took to the record to say that the move is meant to help the firm branch out into higher-margin value-added aluminium pursuits.
“Our vertically integrated model, that means that we have control over every aspect of our production, is a key strength of Alro. We have been actively pursuing a strategy to increase our reach into sophisticated industries which demand processed aluminium that meets very specialized technical standards. We are proud that manufacturers such as Airbus come to Alro for aluminium products that are of the highest quality.”
Per reporting, the public offering is expected to attract attention from Romanian institutional and retail investors. Vimetco also expects to attract the attention of investors from abroad as well.
Alro was founded in 1963 and is based in Slatina, Romania. The firm, a subsidiary of Vimetco N.V., produces both primary and processed aluminium and is managed by Russian investor Vitaliy Machitski. Alro has an installed capacity of 265,000 metric tons per year, making it one of the largest producers in Central and Eastern Europe outside of Russia and Scandinavia. Its facilities at Slatina include a cast house, hot and cold rolling mills, and an extrusion shop.
At present, Vimetco owns an 84.2-percent share in Alro. Over 80 percent of Alro’s production is sold internationally, both throughout the European Union and in the United States. The company’s sales in 2017 totaled US$669 million, and the firm turned in an EBITDA in 2017 of US$140 million. Alro has a market capitalization of roughly US$420 million and has been listed on the Bucharest stock exchange for two decades.