Sanex Cluj lends 5m euros to new main shareholders

Construction supplies producer Lasselsberger (Austria) has contracted a 5 million euro loan from Sanex Cluj, which it took over three months ago.

In Romania it is usually the foreign companies that lend money to domestic companies to help them develop their business.

The loan contract was closed last week.

“This was an investment prompted by the optimisation of the group’s finances. It is a very common practice between companies in a group to invest cash in one of the members at much better terms than offered by banks,” Stefan Bucataru, Sanex Cluj general manager told Ziarul Financiar.

The interest on the one-year loan will be paid every month and calculated in line with the EURIBOR (average interbank interest rate on the European market) in addition to 2% of the remaining principal, according to a report of the Romanian producer of ceramic tiles and sanitary-ware.

“When making such decisions, the taxes and charges to be paid in every country are also taken into account,” the general manager added.

The Czech subsidiary of the group will sell four million euros worth of ceramic tiles to Sanex this year, the report reads.

The Cluj-based company logged $1 million net profit last year, while sales stood at $41 million.

Sanex Cluj has the highest production capacities on the Romanian market, that is 6.8 million square metres of ceramic tiles and 13,000 tonnes of sanitaryware. It accounts for 23%-25% of the sanitaryware market.

Lasselsberger acquired control of Sanex in April, after having bought the investment vehicle Goodison Holdings BV, registered in the Netherlands, which held the majority stake in Sanex.

Lasselsberger, one of the largest family businesses on the construction supplies market in Europe, bought two of the top three local producers, Sanex Cluj Napoca and Mondial Lugoj, thus becoming the leader of a market whose annual sales were estimated at 110 million euros in 2003.

Lasselsberger now controls more than 35% of the Romanian wall and floor tiling market through Sanex and Mondial. The number two player is Zalakeramia (through Cesarom Bucharest), with a market share of about 25%, followed by Delta Distribution – approximately 18%. The rest of the market is covered by two small local producers and tens of importers.

The Austrians have been engaged in an unprecedented acquisition campaign in the region in the last two years, having spent tens of millions of euros so far. They bought Czech, Slovakian, Romanian, Hungarian and Italian producers one by one.

Lasselsberger owns about 40% in the Hungarian Zalakeramia Group, which owns Cesarom Bucharest, the second leading producer of ceramic tiles on the Romanian market.
georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro