Dutch Wolters Kluwer Group, one of the leading publishing houses and information suppliers in the world, has recently entered the Romanian market by buying 80% in EON Programming Romania.
Wolters Kluwer, an over 3.3bn euro business is the first strategic investor to have entered the market of legal databases on electronic support in Romania, an industry, which is expected to see significant growth from the current 4-5 million euros.
The deal whereby the Dutch took control of the EON business, one of the leaders of its market, is worth a record high of approximately 2.6-3 million euros.
"The talks with the Dutch started about a year ago. They were attracted by the growth potential of the legal information market in Romania, which is now 4 or 5 times smaller than Hungary''s and much lower than Poland''s that is put at 40 million euros a year," Andrei Woinaroski, marketing and new product development manager told Ziarul Financiar.
EON Programming is a business started in mid ''90s as CTN, and then acquired by a group of young electronics and computer specialists in 2000.
"This has been a profitable business year by year. It was making profit even at the time we took it over. We have barely made any investments in it, but the company has grown from 40 customers to more than 3,000 at the moment in five years. One of our products in high demand on the market is SintAct, a facility that offers updated versions of normative acts with the latest modifications included," Woinaroski says.
The acquisition consolidates the Eastern European portfolio of the Legal, Tax & Regulatory Europe division of the Dutch group.
Rolv Eide, the general manager of the division that acquired EON was saying that a number of companies in Eastern Europe were being faced with interesting market developments, as these states want to join the European Union. The implementation of the acquis communautaire by the countries now pending accession, such as Romania, will give a significant boost to the legal information market, Wolters Kluwer representatives feel.
Prior to the deal with Wolters Kluwer, EON Programming used to be equally divided among its four managers: Lucian Neagu (35, chief executive), Andrei Neagu (38, chief financial officer), Andrei Woinaroski (37, marketing manager) and Adrian Enache (37, technical director). The four sold 20% of their shares each, and sources on the market say the Dutch will get the rest over the next two years.
The four Romanian shareholders retain their management positions, Woinaroski says.
Andrei Neagu and Andrei Woinaroski were among the five owners of the cable TV and Internet service provider FX, a business sold to Metromedia International Group through two transactions in 2000 and 2002. RCS and Astral later teamed up and acquired FX Communications'' portfolio, which included FX Internet.
"We also have an equipment and motorbike import business, called Motor Unu SRL. We want to grow the EON business and may establish a start-up," Woinaroski says.
The company had about 30 employees last year and one million euro turnover. It expects growth of 30%-40% in 2005, EON''s officials say.
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