Dragoi family businesses: Comvex loses momentum

A profit down by 17.3% in the first six months of the current year and a turnover lower by 13.8% compared to the first half of the year 2024, represent the main coordinates in which Comvex's activity was carried out in the first part of 2025. If we were to summarize only the first part of the report published by the company led by Dan Drăgoi, the father of Bogdan Drăgoi, the one who personally or through intermediaries holds the management of the former SIF 1, SIF 4 and SIF 5, we would be tempted to say that the company Comvex SA is starting to take water.

In reality, things are not like that at all, as long as the net profit for the first semester of 2025 amounts to over 7 million euros (36.4 million lei), even if it is lower than that recorded for the same period last year, and as the turnover was 131.2 million lei.

However, beyond the figures, the report submitted by Comvex SA to the Bucharest Stock Exchange outlines the image of a company at the intersection of major external pressures and internal structural challenges.

According to the statements contained in the document published on Tuesday on the BVB website, the Comvex Mineral Terminal in the Port of Constanta, one of the most important logistics hubs in the Black Sea area, is facing the direct effects of fluctuations in global demand and volatility in raw material prices, as well as the impact of European and national policies that push for the diversification of trade routes.

The report published by the company presents several causes of this reduction: costly bottlenecks and loss of efficiency caused by a deficient railway infrastructure and the lack of a modern digital platform for managing road traffic in the port; the destabilizing effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine, which limited navigation on the Danube and the Black Sea and introduced additional restrictions on trade flows, disrupting the company's activity at a time when logistical resilience is crucial; competition from ports in the region is increasing the pressure on the activity carried out by Comvex SA.

The report states: "Competition and logistical alternatives provided by other ports in the region may reduce the demand for port services provided by the Comvex Terminal.”

Even under these conditions, the Comvex SA minerals terminal handled 2.4 million tons of raw materials in the first half of 2025, compared to 3.1 million tons handled in the first half of 2024. That is, a minus of 700,000 tons, of which 600,000 tons represent minerals from Ukraine that were in this terminal in the first six months of last year.

The Comvex SA grain terminal handled 2.1 million tons of grain in the first half of 2025, compared to 2.4 million tons of grain handled in the first half of the previous year. Of the difference of 300,000 tons, 150,000 tons represent Ukrainian grains operated in the Port of Constanta in the first semester of 2024 through the Comvex grain terminal, Ukrainian cargo that did not arrive in 2025.

Even so, of the total of 131,202,426 lei - the turnover recorded in the first semester of 2025, the amount of 88,694,162 lei represents the turnover of the mineral terminal, and the difference of 42,508,264 lei represents the turnover of the grain terminal for the first six months of the current year.

However, it is less than last year, which shows a small drift of the admiral, pennant, company of the Dragoi clan, namely Comvex SA.

• Dan Drăgoi complains about competition in the Black Sea, son Bogdan Drăgoi strengthens his father's economic rivals

At a time when Dan Drăgoi and his associate, Viorel Panait, claim that "competition and logistical alternatives provided by other ports in the region may reduce the demand for port services provided by the Comvex Terminal", what is the former's son doing?

At the beginning of September, the Competition Council announced in a press release that it was analyzing the takeover of the Argus company from Constanta (the largest oil factory in the area) by the Bulgarian company Buildcom EOOD. The transaction took place after the alternative investment fund Infinity Capital Investments, i.e. the former SIF 5 - Oltenia, controlled from the shadow of Bogdan Drăgoi, has concluded an agreement with the Bulgarian company through which Infinity would sell its stake in Argus Constanta to it. According to the mass media in our country, in this case it would be about 14.5 million euros that would enter Infinity's accounts.

What is the interesting aspect of the business?

Build EOOD signed a financing agreement with the European Investment Bank on June 27, 2023 to build a grain terminal in the Port of Varna. The EIB is financing the project with 50 million euros, the total value of the project being 100 million euros.

Under these conditions, Build EOOD will become, through the respective terminal, the number one competitor of the company Comvex SA Constanta in the field of grain transport and storage in the western Black Sea. That is, the terminal in Bulgaria will be part of the "competition and logistical alternatives provided by other ports in the region that may reduce the demand for port services provided by the Comvex Terminal”, which is discussed in the report published on Tuesday on the BVB website.

This is in the context that Comvex has the most important grain terminal in the Port of Constanta, a terminal that it has been expanding since last year, according to the report published by the company, the financing being partially provided in the form of state aid, through the 2021-2027 Transport Program. With this financing, Comvex built two more storage cells out of the five additional cells provided for in the grain terminal expansion plan, a plan that upon completion would ensure an increase in storage capacity by 28,000 metric tons. For the two initial additional cells, which will store 11,800 metric tons, the part of the financing received through the 2021-2027 Transport Program was non-refundable.

In other words, the Comvex SA grain terminal is expanding, although Dan Drăgoi and Viorel Panait in the report sent to the BVB claim that the activity in the terminal was reduced in the first semester by 300,000 tons, compared to the same period last year. At the same time, Bogdan Drăgoi, through Infinity Capital Investments (formerly SIF 5 - Oltenia) is selling shares worth 14.5 million euros held in the Argus Constanta oil factory, a factory that is being taken over by the Bulgarian company Buildcom EOOD. That is, the company that is building a grain terminal in Varna and which is part of the competition of the ports in the region that are increasing the pressure on the activity of Comvex SA according to the BVB report.

Under these conditions, we are entitled to ask what is hidden behind this business with the hope that the officials of the Competition Council will decipher the threads that will give us an answer.