www.business-review.eu Business Review | May 2022
24 ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Agista looking to boost presence of Romanian entrepreneurs on stock exchange With planned investments in 20 Romanian companies until 2023, Agista Investments is a newly launched closed growth fund that wants to see more entrepreneurial companies going public. Nicolae Kovacs, the CEO of Agista, spoke to BR about the stock exchange’s significant potential to attract some of the EUR 35 billion being kept by Romanians in bank deposits and provided insights into the planned launch of the new accelerator. By Ovidiu Posirca
More specifically, we are looking to acquire minority stakes, seeking to be an anchor investor and active partner to support growth by deploying capital, but also to provide know-how, reputation, and group synergies. We typically invest over a mid-long term of three to five years, and we take a board seat for strategic guidance. Agista aims to invest at any of the following stages: Pre-IPO, Private Placement, IPO, and listed equities.
What factors do you analyse when planning to invest in an emerging company? What type of fund is Agista and what is your portfolio strategy built on?
service, a proper growing market, and the
As a general modus operandi, we invest in
internal scaling capability to ensure that the
high-growth companies that seek capital to
Agista Investments is a closed growth invest-
capital we deploy will create the expected
ramp up expansion, either via M&A transac-
ment fund that aims to invest in high-growth
added value and boost the company’s value
tions or by boosting their production capabil-
private and public equities that operate in all
in the long term. The end goal is to get the
ities¬—most often both. The optimal size for
of Romania’s strategic sectors. We feel that
private companies in which we invest listed
these companies’ annual turnover is between
there is a financial intermediation short-
and, down the line, to have a high-growth
EUR 3 and 15 million. We seek to understand
age on the Romanian market, and we’re
stock portfolio listed on the Bucharest Stock
their product and market potential, but even
looking to invest in companies that have
Exchange (BVB), on both the main and AeRO
more importantly, we are looking to invest
three major qualities: a proven product or
markets.
in people and their vision and capability to
