Romania’s road infrastructure company CNAIR said on Friday that a consortium led by three local companies that are part of the UMB Group won a 1.20 billion lei ($277.9 million/261.3 million euro) contract to build a segment on the Bacau-Pascani section of the A7 motorway.

The works on the 18.99 km motorway segment are to be completed within 30 months and are covered by a 10-year warranty period, CNAIR said in a press release.

Financing was secured through Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, PNRR.

The project also includes the construction of 14 bridges and overpasses, as well as a 525-metre viaduct, CNAIR General Manager Cristian Pistol said in a social media post.

The consortium includes SA&PE Construct, Spedition UMB and Tehnostrade, all part of Romania's UMB Group.

This is the consortium’s second contract on the Bacau-Pascani motorway section, having already won a tender for a 30.3 km segment on December 22, CNAIR said at the time.

Bacau-Pascani is one of the four sections of the A7 motorway, which is to connect Ploiesti in southern Romania to Pascani in the eastern part of the country.

On September 21, CNAIR announced that 23 entities had submitted offers for the construction of three segments summing 77 km on the Bacau-Pascani motorway section, with the UMB group tie-up submitting bids for all three segments. Seven other companies also submitted bids for each of the two segments won by the tie-up.

The local consortium had previously won a 6.5 billion lei contract to build three segments of the Focsani-Bacau section of the A7 motorway, following the completion of a tender in late November, CNAIR said at the time. The contracts for these works were subsequently signed on December 15.

SA&PE Construct was funded in 2013 and in 2021, it netted a profit of 7.8 million lei, while turning over 1 billion lei and employing 14 people, data from the finance ministry shows.

Founded in 1997, Spedition UMB booked a net profit of 29.7 million lei, on a 1.33 billion lei turnover, while employing 42 people in 2021.

Tehnostrade, also part of the UMB Group, was established in 2004. In 2021, it posted a net profit of 143 million lei and a turnover of 1.22 billion lei while employing 2,259 people.