With EUR 10 mln from Enterprise Investors, Profi goes supermarket shopping in Romania

Investment fund Polish Enterprise Fund VI will invest EUR 10 million in the discount retailer Profi, according to the company. The total investment in Profi could reach EUR 100 million in the coming years.

This will be done through a share capital increase, which will finance the company's expansion through new locations and the takeover of small supermarkets in the country. Profi plans to open six more stores until the end of 2011 and 25 stores in 2012. Profi also wants to implement a smaller type of store for cities with less than 20,000 inhabitants. The new stores would cover up to 500 sqm. The retailer currently runs 101 stores in 67 Romanian cities. It was taken over by Enterprise Investors in 2010, through a EUR 66 million deal. Its 2010 sales were of around EUR 180 million, up 21 percent on 2009. The sales growth in the first six months of 2011 was of 35 percent. Enterprise Investors controls several companies in Romania: Macon Deva construction materials producer, 23 percent of IT company Siveco, retailer Profi. It also holds shares in Polish Kruk, which is also active on the Romanian market and in Hungarian online insurance broker Netrisk.hu, with activities in Romania as well. Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com (photo source: Profi)