Looking for worthy projects

The Romanian business background is not able to generate investment projects that can bring financial success to the international crediting institutions.

This issue, very frequently cited by the venture capital funds operating on the Romanian market, was confirmed on Tuesday at a debate presenting the financing opportunities provided by the German Society for Investments and Development (DEG).

“Our willingness to invest is faced with the lack of viable projects,” Volker Neuschutz, DEG vice president for Europe, the Near East and Central Asia, told Ziarul Financiar. “We haven’t even set a certain financing ceiling for this year. There are resources, but we are waiting for projects,” Neuschutz states.

He says that Romanian projects are mostly rejected due to wrong managerial conceptions, unprofessional assessment of the market and low surviving chances of one particular product.

On the other hand, the potential cash flow generated by an investment is often unrealistically estimated, according to the German experts.

“A project with chances of success should be very precisely evaluated and very well drawn in order to outline a very low investment risk degree,” Volker Neuschutz says.

DEG currently has investments in only three Romanian companies – industrial leasing company Demir Romlease, Arctic and plastics company Petking Campulung. “We are not content with having so little,” DEG vice president said. DEG portfolio in Romania amounts to 11 million euros.