Environmental Investment Partners I exits GazVest

Environmental Investment Partners I has sold its 28% stake in the privately owned natural gas distributor GazVest Arad to Victor Dombrovschi, thereby making him the majority shareholder in the company with 60%.

This means the regional investment fund is exiting what was its only investment on the Romanian market – GazVest Arad.

The value of the transaction between the fund and Dombrovschi was not revealed by either of the parties involved, however market sources put the deal at more than 5-6 million euros, with a supplementary amount to be paid by the buyer depending on the company”s performance over the next five years.

The 28% stake comes with a par value of 2.84 million euros against a share capital value of 406bn ROL (some 10 million euros).

“We have sold our GazVest stake to Mr. Dombrovschi. It was a profitable sale, a good business. This is a complex structure transaction, based on a pricing formula that also takes into account the future performance of the company,” Adam de Sola Pool, chief investment officer for EIP, told Ziarul Financiar.

“We cannot comment as to the value of the transaction because of confidentiality clauses. As to future investment plans for GazVest, however, we plan to invest more than 5 million euros during 2005-2006. The company needs a capital inflow,” Dombrovschi said.

The fund bought into the GazVest business, one of Romania”s largest privately owned natural gas distributors, in 2001 and invested some 3.3 million euros.

GazVest has more than 20 concessions for the distribution of natural gas in the counties of Timis, Arad and Bihor, and is moving into the area surrounding Satu Mare. The company made a 59bn ROL (1.45 million euro) turnover last year and posted 15bn ROL (some 400,000 euros) in losses.

Dombrovschi says he would be interested in acquiring the remaining 40%, most of which is held by SIF Banat-Crisana (25%), with the other shareholders being Comera (12.34%), Liviu Ilievici (0.0036%) and Evanston Capital Advisors investment fund (0.055%).