The 14 companies in Gemisa Investments' investment fund portfolio have a cumulated value of between 25 and 30m euros, according to an evaluation conducted by company representatives.
"Regarding the evaluation process, indicators are not always trustworthy and there is no fixed or definite evaluation criterion in place. However, there are certain guidelines we can follow, including some preliminary evaluations, which depend on similar transactions or financial indicators, all of which enable us to evaluate our portfolio. Currently, Gemisa's portfolio is worth between 25 and 30m euros," states Dragos Rosca, CEO at Gemisa Investments.
At present, the fund's portfolio includes the following companies: Egipo, Miniblu, Optical Network, Sport Distribution Group, Press Pro International, Fleet Management Services, Oxigen Plus, Diagnosis, Business Intelligence Alliance, Geroaslan and Simplu Credit.
Gemisa was first launched in 2004 as an investment fund targeting start-ups and small businesses. As a fledgling company on the domestic market, the only exit deal Gemisa was initially involved in was the sale of Lauren Finance to Mediplus, from which it got approximately 2.5 times more than the invested capital. Gemisa's board of directors has decided to exit one or two more companies in the portfolio, Rosca says.
At the same time, one of the short-term plans envisaged by Gemisa shareholders is the launch of a new fund with a financing capacity of 100 million euros.
So, what route did Gemisa take from deciding to build a fund in several months to planning a fund with a 100m euro capacity?
"In 2003, I started thinking it would be interesting to create a private equity fund and one of the ideas I came up with was related to a restructuring fund (...)," explains Dragos Rosca. "At that time, the market was unprepared for a restructuring fund and I don't believe Romania is ready for such a project at the moment, either," says Rosca.
At the suggestion of some business partners, Rosca decided to do something else with the already raised 6m euros. "(...) We decided to set up a start-up fund in Romania," adds Rosca.
Although limited by the available funds, the decision was made to focus on retail, prompted by the high growth rate witnessed lately in this sector.
"The retail portfolio, which is actually Gemisa's core business is witnessing the best performance in 2007. The four retail companies, Miniblu, Optiblu, Gipo and Sport Distribution Group generate three quarters of the turnover," Rosca said.
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