One of biggest Bulgarian construction companies, Planex, has opened an office in the Romanian capital Bucharest, the company announced.

It said the move is "in line with its development plans", and that is has entered negotiations for a number of projects in Romania due by the end of the year.

„We have faith in the Bulgarian market, but at the same time, it is our responsibility to expand our opportunities. We are in process of negotiating a number of important projects in neighboring Romania and we are backing their execution with more than 20 years of experience and over 400 successfully completed projects.", Eng. Hristo Dimitrov, co-owner of Planex is quoted as saying.

According to the Planex management, the Bulgarian construction sector "should follow its natural horizons for expansion beyond Bulgarian boundaries and be realistic about the fact that in countries such as the United Arab Emirates or Russia is difficult to offer scale and competitiveness."

"On the other hand, in the Baltic States and in the countries neighboring Bulgaria, new opportunities are yet to be opened. Despite the challenging economic environment the best players stand a chance to maintain a market position," the company said.

"By starting operations in Romania Planex aims at expanding the opportunities to utilize the full production capacity, while at the same time enriching its construction know-how working with local partners," its statement added.

The Planex management believes that Romania's proximity gives it the opportunity to continue guaranteeing the completion of full project cycles and, when necessary, to use in-house produced materials.

Planex owns production facilities and warehouses in Varna, Burgas and Sofia. The company also owns a factory with monthly production capacity of 1000 sq. m. of aluminum joinery, as well as a concrete laboratory Polymix with two production installations for concrete and construction mixtures. Other supporting production capacities of Planex include: production of aluminum and PVC joints, chipboard and MDF furniture plant as well as interior doors plant.

Planex says it has full range of equipment for qualified execution of a wide range of activities, which support the flawless construction process: excavation works, buildings demolition, site clearance, terrain filling up and leveling, earthworks, transportation and mass haul, transportation of inert materials and packaged construction materials, transportation and spreading of concrete solutions, construction sites support services.

Planex Holding is ranked 25th by revenues among Bulgaria's largest holdings, according to the ranking of the Capital weekly.