Ascendis in negotiations to sell 30% stake

Ascendis, one of the largest players on the consulting and training market in Romania, is in talks with an Austrian company to sell a 30% stake. “The Austrian company is small, with turnover worth 1.5 million euros, but has the necessary funds to acquire a stake in Ascendis. The Austrians have closed down their training division, and need a partner in this field. For the time being, we are collaborating with them for just some of our projects,” Costea Dumitrescu, a partner with Ascendis, told ZF. According to Dumitrescu’s estimates, Ascendis has a market value of 4 to 5 million euros, which means the Austrians would be willing to pay somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 million euros for 30% of Ascendis. “We will be able to provide more concrete information at the end of the year or at the beginning of 2009, because we want the new partners whom we appointed on January 1, to become more familiar with the business,” said Dumitrescu. In 2008, Ruxandra Milca, Florin Radulescu and Andrei Gosu became partners and joined the other two partners, Sorin Paun and Marius Opris.