The 2009 investment strategy of Advent International, the biggest player on the local private equity market, has been built with the financial crisis in mind. The company is willing to help with up to 50 million euros the profitable companies that do not have access to bank loans, will support companies from its portfolio in managing their cash and will not have any exits for the next two or three years.
"Given that the entire Central and Eastern Europe is suffering from financial turmoil, our goal is to help a number of profitable companies that need capital worth approximately 30 to 50 million euros to boost competitiveness or upgrade their operations in order to increase efficiency. Such businesses are relatively stable but cannot get financing from banks and will not be able to survive the crisis without capital," Sebastian Tcaciuc, manager with the Romanian office of the US-based Advent International company told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
The financial crisis has narrowed the access of companies to traditional financing sources such as bank loans and capital markets and also made it more expensive, so that the investments of private equity funds are now playing an important part in that they see profitable companies through these times.
Present on the local market since the late nineties, the private equity funds managed by Advent International have signed some of the most important deals on the Romanian market: the about 324 million-euro exit from pharmaceutical producer Terapia and the more than 100 million-euro investment in LaborMed.
The current turmoil has confirmed investments in the non-cyclical economy sectors, with more and more investors directing their attention towards "crisis-proof" companies.
"I believe all investors are now looking for crisis-proof sectors. The sectors we are looking at now are those that make goods and servi
