"We have the capacity to provide solutions and products for the Romanian armed forces”

Reporter: What was Thales' turnover in Romania last year and what are your estimates for the coming years?

Cristian Sfichi: The turnover in 2024 for Thales Romania amounted to 214,231,971 lei, according to the balance sheet submitted to the Ministry of Finance. Thales has been a partner of Romania for decades. We started this partnership as a supplier to the Romanian armed forces, and in 2007, the Thales group began to develop its industrial operations in Romania. Currently, our position in Romania is consolidated and we have a development strategy for the coming years. The Thales group has only three centers of excellence in engineering globally, and one of them is located in Bucharest and serves, in terms of software development, all the key areas in which our company operates - defense, cybersecurity, aeronautics and the space domain. In conclusion, we maintain the upward trend.

Reporter: What are the main challenges for Thales during this period?

Cristian Sfichi: The main challenge for Thales during this period is to meet the requirements of our customers in the context of the increasing demand for diverse and innovative solutions, especially in strategic areas such as defense and security. Our main concern is, therefore, to deliver the solutions within the time limits and to the agreed quality standards, in order to best meet the needs of the partners with whom we collaborate. To this end, we need a highly qualified workforce, and the internal demand for engineers and programmers with communication skills in French is increasing. In Romania, it is truly a challenge to find candidates who are specialists or experts in the technical field, but also good French speakers. We collaborate in this regard with the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, which has study programs in French, such as those offered by the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages. Our team has grown steadily year on year, by approximately 35% compared to 2024, and we strive to maintain this trend in the future.

Reporter: What is the allocation for innovation-research-development?

Cristian Sfichi: For innovation-research-development, in Romania we allocate annually on average somewhere between 3% and 5% of turnover, in space projects, in the artificial intelligence laboratory, as well as in the fields of biometrics and cybersecurity. It is important to note that in Romania we benefit from the fact that we are part of a group with a global presence that annually invests over 4 billion euros in research and development in key areas, especially for critical sectors, such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum technologies and cloud.

Reporter: What is the relationship that Thales has with partner companies in Romania?

Cristian Sfichi: One of our long-term partners is the ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics) research center in Măgurele. Thales joined the ELI-NP program in 2013 to develop the most powerful HPLS (high power laser system) in the world. We started its delivery and installation at the end of 2016. The Thales system is now fully integrated and tested and generated the first pulses with a record power level of 10 PW (Petawatts) on March 7, 2019. In August 2020, the laser facility generated ten consecutive pulses of 10 PW fully compressed, reconfirming Thales as a world leader in the field of high power lasers. Therefore, the Thales Romania team directly contributed to the installation of the most powerful laser system in the world (2x10 Petawatts) and currently operates this unique scientific instrument, together with ELI-NP experts. It is certainly a partnership we are proud of, to help the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH) in conducting theoretical and experimental researches with the help of this laser system which will be the central instrument of a new unique facility for fundamental research and advanced technology in the field of nuclear physics. In the field of defense, the successful partnership with the Romanian army and industry for over 20 years and the long-term cooperation with Aerostar SA have evolved into a key industrial partnership, within which Thales has provided Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) technologies to most of the air, land and naval military platforms in Romania.

Reporter: What percentage of Thales product components are made in Romania?

Cristian Sfichi: Thales' portfolio is extremely vast and varied, and as I was saying, the team in Romania is involved in projects that are part of all the Group's strategic areas. For some of them - for example naval projects, air traffic management, or biometrics, secure airport access and cybersecurity, where the Romanian team is responsible for developing the core product, the proportion is at least 80%. For other areas, the distribution is more balanced, approximately 50%, and for others, where we contribute to the development of subsystems and offer support in the adaptation and maintenance of complex engineering solutions, the percentage is lower, but still exceeds 20%.

Reporter: How can Thales contribute to the programs carried out by the Ministry of Defense regarding the security and defense of Romania, more precisely, which products could be included in the programs for equipping the Romanian Army?

Cristian Sfichi: Thales is a company with a special specificity - its portfolio of solutions and products covers the entire space spectrum, let's say, from those for activities or actions carried out in the depths of the oceans - such as, for example, security solutions for gas pipeline systems or for mineral extraction, anti-submarine warfare systems or against sea mines (detection and elimination), solutions for securing underwater digital communications for submarines and divers, autonomous underwater vehicles, etc. - to those carried out in outer space - complete (end-to-end) solutions for all types of satellites, including military ones (for defense and secure communications), development of space infrastructure and advanced space technologies. Therefore, Thales has the capacity to provide solutions and products for any kind of security and defense requirement that Romania might need - radars, electronic systems, battle management systems, smart ammunition, advanced cryptography and cybersecurity systems, and many more, in addition to those mentioned above. In addition to the capacity to deliver any type of defense and security product or solution, Thales also has extensive expertise in the field, both globally and locally.

Reporter: Do you have any projects funded by the European Union, part of which is carried out by Thales in Romania?

Cristian Sfichi: Currently, we are exploring the opportunity to collaborate with local partners in projects that would be part of the European SAFE (Support for Aerospace, Defense and Security) and ReArm Europe programs. This would be a rare, if not unique, opportunity to build and develop domestic capabilities that would best meet current and future defense needs. Therefore, we are focusing on finding the most efficient collaboration options that will allow us to also deliver the ongoing contracts.

Reporter: Thank you.