Foreign investors pour EUR 535 mln into Romanian companies in July. Which were the largest investments?

The 40 largest capital infusions made by foreign investors in the companies they hold in Romania totaled EUR 535 million, in July, according to statistics from the Trade Registry’s Office (ONRC). The statistics include only capital increase operations which were registered in the analyzed period. The largest capital increase recorded in July is that made by Austrian group Egger in its Romanian subsidiary, which is EUR 155.8 million. This is also the largest capital increase made by a foreign investor in Romania this year. Egger made another capital increase of EUR 34 million in the first half of the year. The Austrian group has a wood panel and wood laminates factory in Radauti, a town located in the Northern part of Romania, in Suceava county. The company had sales of EUR 209 million in 2013 and a net profit of EUR 14.3 million. The second largest capital increase in July was made by the shareholders of meat producer Smithfield Romania, which brought EUR 92.2 million in the company. Smithfield is the largest pork producer in Romania. The company has pig farms and meat processing units. Smithfield Ferme, the pig farm business, generated sales of EUR 173 million last year and a net profit of EUR 23.8 million, while Smithfield Prod, the processing company, had a turnover of EUR 187 million. U.S. group Smithfield was taken over by Chinese Shuanghui Group last year. Third comes beer producer Heineken Romania, which received a EUR 67.4 million cash infusion from its parent group. Heineken owns four beer factories in Romania, in Constanta, Craiova, Miercurea Ciuc and Targu Mures and 1,200 employees. In 2013, the company had a turnover of EUR 250 million and a net profit of EUR 35.6 million. Large capital increases were also recorded by two local subsidiaries of Honeywell and EDP Renewables. American group Honeywell brought EUR 32 million to the capital of Honeywell Friction Materials, which produces components for car braking systems in a factory in Ploiesti. EDP Renewables, which is part of Portuguese group Energias made a EUR 21.7 million capital increase in its Romanian company EDPR RO PV, which operates photovoltaic power generating plants with a total capacity of 400 MW in Romania. Several large capital increases were also recorded in real estate. Vitantis SRl, the company that owns the Vitantis shopping center in Bucharest, got EUR 17 million from its shareholder. Vitantis was recently bought by investment fund Revetas Capital, specialized in the acquisition and turnaround of distressed assets. Raiffeisen Evolution, the real estate investment arm of Austrian group Raiffeisen, also brought EUR 27.7 million to the capital of five local companies which manage the development of a real estate project in the Northern part of Bucharest, near Petrom City. Raiffeisen bought 11 hectares of land from Petrom, in 2008, for EUR 90 million, to build a complex real estate project that includes offices, residential units and a hotel, but the project was delayed because of the crisis.