Author: Petra Jamrichová
Source: Hospodárske noviny, 18. 2. 2010, pg. 1
UPPER HEADLINE: Slovak financiers have committed billions of EUR to satisfy their appetite.
Penta investment group is buying like never before. Peter Gabalec and Martin Kvietik, with their Slavia Capital, intend to absorb an unnamed Slovak machinery firm employing 300 people.
Arca Capital, which belongs to billionaire Pavol Krúpa, wants to take over Ukrainian state-owned construction giant Charkovmetrostroj, and Patrik Tkáč with Ivan Jakabovič from J&T have grand plans in the Tatras, where they want to invest 90 million EUR over a three-year period. Though the crisis had frozen our financiers’ appetite for buying companies, today that appears to be history.
Mechanical engineers, refineries…
As the spokesman of Slavia Capital, Peter Benčúrik, revealed to us, in addition to the planned acquisition of the well-established machinery firm referred to above, they are also applying for the purchase of petrochemical assets in Central Europe priced in the order of tens of millions of EUR. “The group is also arranging the final phase of the arrival of two giant business partners in the aircraft and refining industries” adds Benčúrik.
Arca Capital has other plans besides the purchase of Charkovmetrostroj. “We are currently working on a potential entry into, or eventually a takeover of, a Slovak company which deals in green energy” PR manager Monika Dobrovodská says, adding that there is another company in the Czech Republic which also does business in the area of ecological alternatives to standard, thermal insulation materials.
There will be enough opportunities here as well
In summary – our billionaires are once again casting their nets wherever they can, and they have committed billions of EUR for this. The spokesman of J&T Maroš Sýkora responds that, although it’s not possible to say precisely how much they intend to invest this year because they use many different forms of financing, they assume that the sum of new transactions concluded directly or through intermediaries acting for them will attain one billion EUR this year.
Martin Danko, spokesman for Penta group confirmed a similar sum. “Together with bank financing, we are ready to invest between 800 million and one billion EUR.” Apparently, they have some portion of this sum reserved for the purchase of one of the largest Czech meat packing firms, Schneider. According to the Czech newspaper Mladá Fronta Dnes, Dospiva, Haščák and others have set their sights on it. Martin Danko neither denied, nor confirmed their interest. “We are negotiating with several potential sellers, we are interested in the Czech market, but no negotiations have yet been concluded.”
Michal Mišun, a partner of Redbaenk, a firm dealing with mergers and acquisitions, claims that the Slovak finance groups are focusing on a region that they know well and where they have, or can easily create, good connections. “I think there will be many interesting opportunities in the region where they operate,” Mišun concludes.
