While everybody is selling, New Century Holdings is buying

Investment funds Broadhurst, Lindsell and Ivington Enterprises, which are owned by New Century Holdings (NCH), have launched a genuine offensive on the Romanian stock market lately, in an attempt to consolidate their positions in the companies they own, by means of buying shares within public offers.

The last case is the bid launched for a 16.6% stake in the share capital of Electroaparataj Bucuresti, which amounted to 21.9 billion lei. Over the past weeks, more buying offers were initiated for Asirom, Otelinox and Prodaliment Bucuresti.

“This is not an offensive, but an action meant to protect investments. This is also the case of the five SIFs (Financial Investment Companies), which are involved in hundreds of lawsuits aimed at protecting investments.

The other foreign investors have either given up active positions or sold their stakes in publicly owned companies, thus deciding to close the Romania chapter,” the NCH representative in Romania Cristi Andrei Siminel told Ziarul Financiar.

“This offensive is a positive fact. It is good to know that there is a more active operator on the market. Obviously, there are companies that are undervalued, but benefit from a secure market and have growth potential. It is very wise to buy now.

They want to increase their stakes,” Claudiu Simulescu, head of operations with Capital Securities, maintains. He mentions that Broadhurst and the other funds faced some problems as minority shareholders and decided to improve their positions in order to gain more control.

New Century Holdings is an investment management company administering 12 US investment funds, of which three are operating on the Romanian market.

Andrei Siminel says that, so far, the company has invested “over 200 million dollars” in Romania, but funds have derived no profit because of the juridical system.

“What is currently happening in Romania from the perspective of minority shareholders is unconceivable in developed states. Many company managers are focusing on personal business and consider the company’s goods as belonging to them, or to the group they are part of.

The lack of shareholder protection, together with juridical inconsistency, has discredited the market, leading to its collapse.

Unfortunately, the law is inadequate, legal instances are not prepared for such cases, and the Prosecutor’s Office does not benefit from active instruments,” the New Century Holdings representative also says.

Funds under NCH administration have poured massive investments in companies that own commercial spaces, now holding a total area of over 300,000 square metres in Romania.

The total value of the investment stands at several dozens of million dollars. The most valuable companies included in the funds’ portfolios are Bucharest-based ones, whose total area amounts to approximately 14,000 square metres.

Andrei Siminel is trying to achieve consolidation in the milling and bakery domains as well, where he holds Berceni Bucuresti, Panegrano Cluj, Mopariv and other such companies.

“The payment for management based on performances and inner quality plays an important role with regard to these results. It is true that we are in a continuous search for intelligent, fair and loyal managers. Should persons of these qualities read these lines, please contact us,” he states.