Dragos Rosca, Gemisa: Corporate performance similar to ’97-‘99

Dragos Rosca, CEO of investment fund Gemisa Investments, says that most funds are focusing on the management of existing portfolios without having an aggressive acquisition policy.

"Most funds have trouble evaluating companies and making investment decisions in a business environment that is fundamentally changed from the one they had been used to over the last four or five years. Practically, companies show performance similar to ’97-’99, with dwindling sales, operating losses and restructuring steps and investment managers have a hard time figuring out how to fit these situations into calculation patterns to establish transaction parameters," Rosca says.

Gemisa currently has ten companies in its portfolio, among which Diagnosis (medical clinics), Egibo (which merged with Sport Distribution Group last year), Miniblu, Optical Network, Fleet Management Services, personnel recruitment company Business Intelligence Agency (BIA) and Optical Network.

The turnover of the companies in the portfolio revolved around 43 million RON (10.7 million euros) in the first five months of this year, the same as in the corresponding period of last year and about 10% lower in euros. Last year, they posted 28-29 million euro turnover.

"There are significant variations inside the group, for instance in retail and non-food distribution where the decline was more serious. On the other hand, there are companies that continued to see growth, which, overall, partly offset the effects of the crisis," Rosca says.