Investment company Innova Capital, which controls watercooler distributor La Fantana, aims to triple the value of the company to over 110 million euros, through regional expansion and flotation on the Stock Exchange by 2010.
"This year, we intend to expand La Fantana onto regional markets. The acquisition budget for the next 12 months amounts to 10-25 million euros. We would prefer to buy one single company and consolidate it rather than to allocate this budget for the acquisition of several companies," says Krzysztof Krawczyk, a partner with Polish-based private equity company Innova Capital.
With that in mind, Innova has its eyes on the Czech Republic, as well as another market in Central and Eastern Europe, which "seem promising", estimating that they will decide on an acquisition in the first half of the year.
The main takeover targets are players that either hold significant market shares, or are the only players on the market, and will contribute to turning the La Fantana group into a regional leader on the water bottling and distribution market.
Innova Capital controls, through investment fund Innova 4, the majority stake in La Fantana, while Cristian Amza, the company's founder, holds around 10% of shares. Set up around seven years ago by investment fund Oresa Ventures, La Fantana was sold by its majority shareholder to the Polish fund Innova 4, in May last year, following an over 35 million-euro transaction.
Currently, the company operates both domestically and on the Serbian market, and posted turnover worth 20 million euros last year, up 35% on 2006. In addition to expansion on neighbouring markets, Innova Capital wants to float La Fantana on the Bucharest Stock Exchange by 2010.
"Taking into consideration the trend on international markets, La Fantana will most likely be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange by 2010. Whether it will be listed on an additional stock exchange, as well, will depend on the acquisitions it had made until that point. We will make a decision on the time of the listing in February or March of next year," added Krawczyk.
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