Romanian investment fund ROCA, focusing on distressed assets, wants to turn itself into an investment fund and increase its capital by EUR 15-20 mln by selling new shares and bonds as an intermediary step before listing its shares at Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) in 2023. The capital increase will include the issuing of EUR 10 mln worth of convertible bonds.

"The strategy is to transform from a holding company into an investment fund. As a first step, we will register at ASF as an investment fund manager this year, and later ROCA will become an alternative investment fund. It is a stage of evolution, as an intermediate step on our way to the capital market, in 2023, on the main market," said Rudi Vizental, CEO and co-founder of ROCA Investments, Profit.ro reported.

At the end of 2020, ROCA's assets were RON 87 mln (EUR 18.3 mln), up from RON 57 mln at the end of 2019.

In early 2021, local prefabricated elements producer Prebet reached an agreement to buy 5% in ROCA for EUR 2.1 mln without shareholder's permit in a controversial deal. Nicolae Ratiu, Prebet's former chairman, accused the current head of the board, Mathe Francisc, of forcing a deal under which Prebet would pay 2.5 times the book value for the 5% stake in the investment fund, thus implying a value of under EUR 17 mln.

ROCA's shareholders include CIT Resources, Andrei Cionca, and PIF Industrial - the investment vehicle of Dedeman owners Dragos and Adrian Paval.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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