Camelia Sucu prefers to invest on domestic market

Camelia Sucu, owner of Class Living luxury furniture retailer, says she has declined investments abroad in the furniture and telephony industries, preferring to invest her money on the domestic market, especially as the cash she holds at present comes from a Romanian business, too.
“There’s room for further growth in Romania. The money I have comes from a domestic business and I want to invest it on the same domestic market,” says Camelia Sucu in an interview with ZF.
She sold 40% in Mobexpert to her former husband Dan Sucu in 2007, in a deal of around 40m euros. In the wake of the deal, Dan Sucu became the only shareholder in Mobexpert and Camelia Sucu got control over Class retailer. After the completion of the deal, Camelia Sucu came to be recognised as the woman with the biggest amount of cash available in Romania and started being “wooed” by private equity funds, as well as by private banking consultants for the management of one of the biggest fortunes in Romania.
“It’s hard to persuade a young entrepreneur to leave his or her money in the hands of others. This does not mean the stock market is a field I wouldn’t be interested in,” she says.
The first investments she made include the purchase of two plots of land of around 15,000 square metres, one near Bucharest’s five-star Marriott hotel and one in Baneasa, for 15m euros each. “I planned to build on both on them and I still do, though for the one of Marriott I’ve had purchasing offers,” she says, adding she bought the plots for financial placements, “that would generate future investments, as well as profit”.
This summer, Camelia Sucu says she got an offer from Bulgaria to buy a stake in a firm with a similar core business as Class Living, worth some 15m euros. She also received an offer to invest in partnership in Polynesia, in a mobile telephony business of around 5m euros. She declined both offers.
She is now looking at investments in the healthcare sector and is getting close to finalising talks to start a real estate project about which she will not provide many details.
The luxury furniture industry started feeling the crisis fallout in the second quarter of the year, when Class Living saw its turnover fall by around 20% from a year ago.
The expansion of Class Living countrywide has been put on hold for now.