Dinu Patriciu stops scholarship programs in Romania, plans to refinance retail business

The Dinu Patriciu foundation, established by Romanian businessman Dinu Patriciu, has recently stopped its ‘Invent Your Future’ and ‘Opened Horizons’ scholarship programs in Romania. This decision was taken due to the reorganization and restructuring of its activities. “Since this restructuring takes place the middle of the academic year, we’ll try to stay close to our masters and PhD students abroad, in order to identify alternative methods of financing,” reads a statement published on the foundation’s official website. The two scholarship programs started in 2007 and offered financial support of over USD 22 million.

Romanian businessman Dinu Patriciu owns Mercadia Holland BV, which includes the Mic.ro convenience stores chain, the Macro discount network, Bet Arena Cafe betting houses and the Bio Good ecological products chain in Romania. Patriciu has recently denied selling a 49 percent stake in the company to an American investor, according to Money.ro. The rumors appeared recently in the Romanian media due to some Mic.ro stores in Bucharest being closed. “The information is not real. What is real is that I will refinance it. I can’t give you any more details,” said Dinu Patriciu, quoted by Money.ro. However, the businessman said that the Mic.ro stores that are currently closed will remain so until the new business plan is made, while other stores will change their program. Dinu Patriciu sold his stake in oil and gas company Rompetrol in 2007 , for some USD 2.7 billion, according to media reports. He invested in media - he bought the Adevarul newspaper, the newspaper Averea and the tabloid Click and invested in these media products. His company also launched Forbes magazine in Romania, as well as Foreign Policy magazine. Patriciu went on to launch Adevarul local newspapers across Romania and open Adevarul bookshops. Another step in the media conglomerate was to set up a new TV station, but fresh news is yet to come from this side of the business. Meanwhile, the media segment took a nosedive, not only in Romania, but elsewhere in the world. The businessman also invested in real estate. His fund, the Black Sea Global Properties invested in several real estate investment funds with properties in Romania and abroad: Deutsche Land, Rutley European Property and Fabian Romania. The real estate sector too has been on a downward spiral in the last couple of years. Property values dropped, demand went down while financing for new projects became scarce. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com (photo source: Agerpres)