RAEF's follow-on fund buys equipment rental business

Balkan Accession Fund (BAF), the follow-on fund of the Romanian-American Enterprise Fund (RAEF), has signed an agreement to take over 90% of equipment rental company Industrial Access in Bucharest, according to Horia Manda, managing partner of BAF. Industrial Access used to be controlled by four individual shareholders, which had an almost 2 million-euro turnover, up by over 150% against last year, according to data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The transaction was worth 3.8 million euros and included a capital contribution. Rental of industrial equipment is a new field for private-equity fund investments, but it could be a field with a genuine growth potential, due to its low degree of development. Industrial Access mainly provides lifting equipment used predominantly in constructions. "It is a field with a very high growth rate, especially due to the rise of the constructions segment. More and more people prefer to rent the equipment instead of buying it," says Manda.