The management team led by Kent Orrgren, World Class Romania chief executive officer, will continue to run the company and retain their minority stakes.
African Industries Group is held and controlled by Raj and Alok Gupta and has investments in Europe, the Middle East and West Africa. AIG arrived in Romania in 2015 and owns 2,300 hectares of farmland in Teleorman. It also announced takeover of Netherlands’ Thames Farming Enterprises at the end of 2021, owner of several farms – Agricom Borcea, Tudor 92, Concordia Agro and Alisa Farm Management, in Calarasi County covering 13,700 hectares and having a storage capacity of almost 40,000 tons.
“The acquisition of World Class Romania is a new stage of the investment of African Industries Group in Romania, following investment in real estate, agriculture and farm equipment wholesale,” the press release announcing the takeover of World Class says.
World Class is the largest actor on the fitness center market in the country. It posted RON99.4 million revenue in 2020, compared with RON171 million in 2019 and RON43.5 million loss compared with a RON6.6 million net profit, Finance Ministry data show. It had 340 employees compared with 401, according to the same source.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)