Author: TREND
Source: TREND, 16.10.2008, No.41, page.12, printed with Publisher’s Consent
The majority owner of the financial group Arca Capital is looking more and more towards Ukraine, as well as continuing expansion in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Pavol Krúpa found himself placed among the candidates for the title Manager of the Year thanks to two initiatives, the stronger one of which concerned the indicators reflecting his business.
Arca Capital financial group, in which he holds a majority share, is one of the fastest growing companies in the sector. It has set a rapid tempo and is penetrating rapidly into a whole range of branches. The growth in the value of its assets year-on-year can be counted in double digits.
The second, confirmatory, indicator was the unexpectedly high sales of the May number of TREND, which featured his photo on the front cover together with the slogan: The size of Penta? Perhaps, one day…
About Klondike
Even though people bracket the bosses of well-known financial groups together in the same age group, he is actually one of the youngest. This, he emphasises, is one of the reasons why, together with his former schoolmate and current partner, Peter Krištofovič, he missed out on the Klondike of the 1990s. “Should such an opportunity arise today, I would definitely make the most of it”, says P. Krúpa without hesitation. However, he didn’t entirely miss out on the opportunities of the 1990s. One of the companies in which he was a joint owner, EUPRO, featured at that time as the buyer of VÚB Invest Holding from Všeobecná úverová banka.
Being known as a finance shark doesn’t strike him as necessarily negative. But for him to fully accept it, it has to be linked to an operation the size of Penta or J&T. He does not conceal the fact that he gets on well with the people from Penta, in particular. And that “Slavo” Haščák is one of his greatest role-models.
He denies the rumour that suggests that the money and interests of this group are behind his first big projects. “We invested our own capital along with money from banks”, he says. Under the term “own capital”, he means, above all, resources gained from financial consultancy and speculations in shares. Together with his partner, he began to concentrate on consultancy when they were students in the early 1990s. They invested the commission they gained from selling insurance into share dealing. “We just rode the wave of the demand of those who really did control the funds”, he says, describing their role in their then business with investment funds.
When, a few years ago, they decided to move into already existing businesses in various sectors, they divided up their spheres of influence. P. Krištofovič has a majority share in All Finance Services and P. Krúpa in Arca Capital.
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