US-based investment company New Century Holding (NCH) Capital, which manages the biggest investment fund on the Romanian market, brought a further 275 million dollars (211 million euros) in Romania. The exposure of the group therefore increased to approximately half a billion dollars from over 200 million dollars. The Romanian capital market has been one of the most profitable in the world in the last few years, which is attracting increasingly more investment funds. Last year was, after all, the first to yield a satisfactory profit for NCH's investments in Romania.
"We have recently set up a new investment fund that will focus on Romania. The fund's capital is 275 million dollars," George Rohr, NCH Capital chairman told Ziarul Financiar. He added the new investment fund was to be administered by the same team of managers as Broadhurst, which has been present in Romania for more than ten years. NCH's investments on the Romanian market are overseen by Siminel Andrei (44), who is also the chairman of RASDAQ Electronic Market and the originator of this market's merger with the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
NCH Capital is currently managing the Broadhurst fund, whose interests in Romanian companies amount to more than 200 million dollars. The fund is the most important investor in listed securities on the Romanian capital market by far.
The new NCH fund was not formed at the best of times for making such extensive investments. The prices of the shares on the Stock Exchange have risen by over 30% since the beginning of the year, after having doubled in 2004. The spectacular increases in the prices of the stocks over the last few months were attributed to the healthy appetite of the foreign investors for placements in shares of Romanian companies.
In 2004, Broadhurst achieved its highest investment value growth since entering the Romanian market in 1994. The growth in dollars was of 20%, with the gains in the previous year practically cancelling out the losses in 1998 and 1999.
Both 1998 and 1999 were a time of sharp decline for the Bucharest Stock Exchange due to a large number of foreign investors leaving the market. NCH, which was incorporated in New York in 1993, is one of the first Western investment funds that came in Eastern Europe, with its interests now reaching 3 billion dollars.
Rohr was saying last year that the domains NCH's future investments in Romania would go to would be those wherein Broadhurst had been investing, such as financial services, or consumer goods, foods industry inclusive. Broadhurst owns one of the main players on the Romanian milling and bakery market, Vel Pitar. The fund acquired Libra Bank through several of its companies in 2003, which it wants to help attain 1% market share in the next five years, planning to sell it in nine or ten years.
Broadhurst also owns significant stakes in companies that hold commercial space, such as Winmarkt, Romarta or Cocor. It controls the most important Romanian electrical equipment companies, such as Imsat, Electroparataj, Umeb or Electrotehnica and has made large investments in the construction supplies industry in the last few years. vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro
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