The state-owned company that manages the Port of Constanta believes it has more than 76 million lei in debts to recover from ten private companies for rent and utilities, according to documents consulted by Info Sud-Est and G4Media.
The first three companies, with debts totaling 40 million lei, are part of the consortium Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP), owned by tycoon Gabriel Comănescu. GSP did not respond to reporters’ request for a comment by the time this article was published.
Another company claims that the Port of Constanta is not honoring its contractual commitments and has not made promised investments in infrastructure, while a third company claims there is a commercial dispute over the price of electricity. For most of the debts, the National Company Administration of the Sea Ports of Constanta (CN APMC) has taken legal action.
Note: None of these debts have been established by a final court decision, but are calculated by the company that manages the Port of Constanta. In fact, some of these alleged debts are the subject of court litigation, and Info Sud-Est and G4Media will report the court rulings.
Representatives of CN APMC did not want to give a point of view on the matter, saying only that they “confidently await the verdicts in the courts”.
In the top three of debtors are, in descending order of amounts, the following companies from the GSP consortium:
Grup Servicii Petroliere Shipyard SRL, with 18.3 million lei debt calculated by the Port of Constanța. The company was established in 2005 and has a turnover of almost 32 million lei in 2022 and a profit of 3.38 million lei. The company has been petitioned for insolvency in three cases, here, here and here, and according to the portal termene.ro, the company has high commercial risk. The next deadline set by the Ilfov Court is November 7. The company is owned by Gabriel Comănescu and GSP Holding SA, based in Luxembourg, and is managed by Comănescu and Mihai Dumitru Bratu. Comănescu is also a partner and/or administrator in 37 other companies based in Constanța, Prahova, Ilfov and Bucharest.
Grup Servicii Petroliere Logistic SRL, with 12.1 million lei debt calculated by the Port of Constanta. Established in 2014, the company entered insolvency proceedings in 2022 by a decision of the Constanța Court of First Instance, following a company’s application, but the Constanța Court of Appeal suspended the proceedings. Gabriel Comănescu told local publication Ziua de Constanța at the time that “there was a misunderstanding” and “as usual we go and pay what we have to pay”. With a turnover of 15 million lei in 2023 and a profit of just over 100,000 lei, the company is owned by Gabriel Comănescu and GSP Holding SA and managed by Comănescu and Mihai Bratu.
Grup Servicii Petroliere SA, with 10.2 million lei debt calculated by the state-owned company. The company established in 2003 is on loss with 7.7 million lei according to termene.ro and has debts to ANAF of more than 130 million lei (reported to June 30, 2024), according to the institution’s portal consulted by reporters in the first half of August (photo source: Captură ANAF). The company’s shareholders are Gabriel Comănescu, GSP Holding SA, Industria Mundum SRL and RCI Grup de Constultanță SRL.
GSP representatives did not respond to Info Sud-Est and G4Media’s request for a comment on why it has accumulated debts of €8 million through the three companies, nor whether it will pay the arrears in the near future or whether it has held talks with the Port of Constanta for a possible installment payment.
Another company for which the Port of Constanta has calculated debts is Astra Marine Services LTD, a British offshore that has accumulated 9.8 million lei in debts, followed by Comvex SA with almost 9 million lei in outstanding debts, accumulated since 2015, according to company representatives:
- Comvex is a company established in 1992, which has “handling” as its object of activity, in the warehousing sector and ancillary activities for transportation, has more than 400 employees, a turnover of more than 80 million euros in 2023, of which almost half profit.
Comvex is owned by several individuals, by the Constanta businessman Corneliu Bodan Idu and by two offshore companies (through a chain of other companies): Beftstras Holdings Ltd (Cyprus) and Boraz Holding Ltd Zurich (Switzerland).
Contacted by Info Sud-Est and G4Media for a point of view, representatives of Comvex SA said that the company that manages the Port of Constanta, CN APMC, has not fulfilled its contractual obligations and that the Constanta Court rejected in full, in December 2020, the port company’s action in which it had asked the company to pay its debts. The decision is not final and the case is still pending before the High Court of Cassation and Justice, according to the courts portal.
Comvex reproaches the state-owned company with several aspects, but in particular the fact that the infrastructure is not modernized, that the state of the roads “has worsened” and that the public lighting in the Port of Constanta is not adequate “for the proper conduct of industrial activities at night”:
- “The Administration has breached its obligations under Article 29, paragraph 1, letter b) of the Contract, to ensure the functionality of the goods of common interest in the port – walkways and pedestrian walkways, green spaces, sidewalks, sanitary facilities of common use, which it was obliged to maintain, repair, sanitation and lighting (…. ) It follows from the lease contract that the reciprocal obligations – to pay the fee for the use of the port domain, in exchange for ensuring the functionality of the Port’s public interest assets – are interdependent and simultaneous, the parties’ will being expressed in the sense of their execution at the same time; or, the breach of CN APM’s obligations entails the deprivation of cause of the tenant’s obligation to pay the fee for the use of the port domain (…. ) Until now, Comvex has complied to the letter with its obligations to pay the fee for the rental of public land and intends to do so in the future, to the extent that CN APM also complies with its correlative obligations under the contract.
Sticerom SA is another company for which the Port of Constanta calculated debts of 4.4 million lei at the end of July. The firm is owned by businessmen Nicolae and Aurelia Maria Cioboiu, known for their glassware business in the capital since the early 2000s. The company in the harbor is engaged in the manufacture of glassware, has a turnover of 2.5 million lei in 2023, of which almost 660,000 lei profit.
- Info Sud-Est and G4Media reporters tried to contact company representatives for a point of view, but the company’s contact number was answered by a man who said it was a “mistake”, then asked the reporter if he was from the police and hung up the phone.
Midia International SA is another firm for which the Port of Constanta has calculated debts of about 4.3 million lei. The company has a turnover of 37.5 million lei in 2023, of which 6.14 million in profit, and its business is “handling” in the storage sector and auxiliary activities for transportation. The company was established in 1992 and is owned by Prodexport Logistics SA, in turn owned by Epsilon Vision SRL and several individuals.
- The reporters of Info Sud-Est and G4Media were unable to contact representatives of the company for a point of view, as the telephone numbers associated with Midia International were no longer valid, and the company’s e-mail was not answered by the time the article was published.
ADM Romania Logistics SRL is another company for which the Port of Constanta has calculated a debt of 2.17 million lei. The company was established in 1992, has 239 employees and a turnover of over €40 million in 2023, of which almost half is profit. ADM is owned by two Dutch companies, Archer Daniels Midland Europe BV and Alfred C. Toepfer International Netherlands BV and ADM Romania Trading (managed by Povkhan Anton and Jerome Daven).
Representatives of ADM Romania Logistics said, when asked by Info Sud-Est and G4Media for a point of view, that there is a commercial dispute regarding the price of electricity for the period September – December 2022, which is why they do not want to comment on the subject:
- “There is a commercial dispute with APMC regarding the electricity price for the period September to December 2022. We are not commenting on an ongoing legal dispute. But we can say that throughout our history, Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) has made every effort to operate at the highest standards of integrity and ethical business conduct and this includes honoring all of our commercial commitments,” the company said.
Last but not least, two other companies for which the Port of Constanta has calculated debts are Ama Timar Agent SRL (3.7 million lei) and Ades SA (1.8 million lei), both bankrupt according to the courts’ portal, and with debts to ANAF. Neither company could be contacted on the available phone numbers.
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