Global Finance to raise $20m for medium-sized business

Greek company Global Finance will raise 20-25 million dollars in cash for medium-sized businesses in Romania and Bulgaria by yearend, Ladislau Randjak, Global Finance general manager for Romania told Ziarul Financiar.
Randjak specified the idea behind launching a new investment fund was the decrease of the minimal entry threshold for Global Finance from two million dollars to no more than one million dollars.
“We have missed on many opportunities because of the two million dollar entry threshold. There is high demand on the Romanian market for financing of 500,000 dollars to 1,000,000 dollars and we want to seize this opportunity, since there isn’t much of a supply in this respect,” Randjak specified.
The fund will include the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) among its shareholders and will become operational early next year.
Global Finance is already administrating two investment funds in Romania, the Black Sea Fund and EuroMerchant Balkan Fund, which hold significant stakes in Sicomed Bucharest, Delta Romania, Chipita, Loulis and Orange. The Black Sea Fund is the more valuable of the two, as its capitalisation reaches 100 million dollars.
Global Finance has managed to raise another 38 million dollars this year, which were directed to the Black Sea Fund.
Although the fund had more funds available, Global Finance has not entered any business in Romania since last summer, when it invested several million dollars in MobilRom (now Orange Romania) shares. Apart from Romania, the Black Sea Fund invests in Bulgaria and Serbia.
“We have studied various opportunities, yet nothing was finalised in Romania. Things have been moving lately, though and I think we’ll have new businesses next year,” Randjak estimated.
Global Finance sold the minority stake it held in Germanos, the GSM equipment store chain. The buyer was the Greek company Germanos itself, the majority shareholder.
The Romanian market has seen several attempts to launch investment funds aimed at the medium-sized businesses this year, but nearly all of them fell through. The main reasons for the failures are the difficulty and costs required by administrating such funds.
At present, most of the investment funds with money left to spend in Romania (mainly the regional ones) focus on businesses in need of financing above 10 million dollars.