The Romanian company generated a turnover of 44 million lei ($9.6 million/8.85 million euro) in the January-October period of this year, Beleliev told SeeNews in a telephone interview last week, without disclosing further financial details of the transaction.
"After partnering with the Romanian company for several years, we identified its acquisition as a good opportunity to expand our operations in that key Balkan market in view of its size, without the need to establish the company structure ourselves," Beleliev explained. He added that AmonRa Energy's turnover is also on the rise in its other regional markets, namely North Macedonia and Serbia.
At present, AmonRa Energy Romania operates from rented offices and warehouse in Bucharest.
In the first nine months of 2023, AmonRa Energy generated a net profit of around 1 million levs ($553,882/511,291 euro) on revenue of some 50 million levs.
"This year, the price of solar panels has dropped around 2.5 times compared to 2022. The lower prices have led to larger volumes of PV equipment sold, but our turnover has remained at roughly the same level as last year," Beleliev explained.
Asked to comment on warnings issued by industry body Solar Power Europe about the likely damaging effect of potential EU trade defence measures on the import of solar panels from China, Beleliev was of the opinion that introducing import tariffs would not be a solution.
"A measure of this kind would lead to an increase in the final cost of investments without stimulating domestic European production. This is highly risky and would provide grounds to opponents of the EU Green Deal. Other methods should be employed to stimulate EU production, such as preferential interest rates, tax incentives, grant schemes, and the like. These methods would yield a more sustainable long-term effect without making investment in renewable energy prohibitively expensive," Beleliev noted.
