Dragos Grigoriu, creator of Tempo and a leading player in the Romanian advertising industry, has clinched the biggest deal sealed so far on this market after he sold the media unit to Britain's Aegis group for more than 20m euros, sources close to the deal say.
Grigoriu chose not to comment on the value of the deal, but mentioned it would span several years, with the final sum due to depend on his attaining some growth parameters he agreed upon with the British group.
"They bought our potential to generate profit in the future. We do not hold any assets, land or buildings. We are selling our creative energy and capacity to generate ideas," says Grigoriu, who will continue to run the business.
In an interview with ZF, Grigoriu explains why he chose to sell the media unit right now and how talks unfolded.
He is still the owner of Tempo's other units (creative, event organisation, digital marketing, graphic design, public relations and strategy), which will be merged in a single group. He says he will develop this group so that it reaches a value of 70-90m euros in 4-5 years.
Talks with Aegis started in 2006, when the British group sent a consultant to Romania to research the market and find potential acquisition targets. "No matter how you look at the ranking of Romanian agencies, Tempo is there, you cannot leave it out. It's true we were better known on the creative side, but we have an important business in media, too". Last year, the value of ad budgets handled by this unit came close to 25m euros.
Tempo entered the shortlist and talks started in 2007 and ended in late April 2008.
Grigoriu says he did not announce, nor organise a tender to sell the unit. For Aegis, it was extremely important to expand in Romania as it has development plans here and in the region, and for Grigoriu this was an opportunity to capitalise on the business he started building 12 years ago.
Grigoriu was assisted in the deal by Reff si Asociatii (Deloitte Legal), by Deloitte Tax on the tax side and by Wood Oltenasu si Asociatii, while Aegis had Nestor lawyers on its side. Aegis wants to tap strongly into the East as this region represents the next development stage. Romania is a very good market for the firm, with a growing economy and 22 million inhabitants.
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