Giurgiu-based Romstrade company, controlled by businessman Nelu Iordache, has become the biggest builder on the domestic market and also the first that has gone beyond the 300m-euro threshold, owing to the numerous infrastructure contracts sealed with the state. Romstrade has thus outrun Hidroconstructia, with 265m euros in 2009, which had led in this ranking in the past 10 years.

Iordache has this way managed to defeat other Romanian entrepreneurs in the past three years, known as kings of asphalt, such as Dorinel Umbrarescu (owner of Spedition UMB of Bacau), Costel Casuneanu (controlling PA & CO International), Theodor Berna (owner of Tehnologica Radion) or Dan Besciu (owning Euro Construct Trading '98), as well as foreign companies such as Strabag (Austria), Bechtel (the US), Colas (France) or Astaldi (Italy).

"We haven't finalised the 2009 budget, we still have December data to collect, but we're close to what we'd targeted, the equivalent of 320m euros," Gheorghe Racaru, strategy and development manager with the group of firms controlled by Nelu Iordache, told ZF.

At present, asphalt kings' stake is not just sealing contracts with the state, but also recouping debts for works operated in the past years.

Things got worse last year, with Costel Casuneanu, for instance, being investigated by the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) in a case related to last year's infrastructure tenders.

Nelu Iordache, 42, who has never agreed on a press interview, entered the big league of "asphalt kings" in 2007, during Ludovic Orban's office as transport minister.

Then, Romstrade turnover got close to 200m euros, after it had stood at just 18.5m euros a year before.

The company expects an increase by at least 15-20%, to 380 million euros this year.

Giurgiu-based Romstrade company, controlled by businessman Nelu Iordache, has becom