"I was born in a family with four children – me, my brother Robert, who is also my business partner, and two sisters. Our father had a brick production line and our grandfather was a retailer in Maneciu Ungureni, Prahova. We did not want to take over the family business and stay at home, but instead set out to make our mark. We wanted to prove we could do it on our own, and so we decided to go and work abroad."
This is how Ionut Negoita recounts the beginnings of the Rin Grup, which owns real estate, hotels and media, and, according to him, employs 2,000 people and generated 71m-euro revenues last year.
The Trade Registry and the Finance Ministry do not hold any data on the financial situations of the nine companies the businessman says the group includes. But the assets the two brothers state they own are visible: 4 hotels, 1,680 new apartments, an aqua park, a newspaper and a printing house, all in Bucharest.
Ionut Negoita, 35, says he started developing businesses in Romania, together with his brother Robert after having worked in constructions in Yugoslavia and France. "The strategy was to always draw up bigger and more projects than we could afford financially. I am a very well-organised person".
They started by selling carpeting brought from Belgium on a 3.5-tonne truck, back in 1998, when Pro Confort was set up.
"I inherited entrepreneur skills from my father and his grandfather, who did business during the communist period. Robert and I haven’t been advised by anybody in doing business, we relied on flair and boldness".
After they got back from France, the two brothers started seeking opportunities to develop a business.
"We never had that first million in cash. All the money has been reinvested, but the first million probably came from the carpeting business".
Hotel and real estate businesses started being develop
