Holde is the first company to be listed on the Romanian stock exchange after the capital market’s upgrade to Secondary Emerging Market status by the global index provider FTSE Russell.
“Agriculture is an important component of the Romanian economy, with a contribution of 2.2% in the gross domestic product in the first half of this year. Holde Agri Invest is taking an important step in consolidating the field of agriculture in Romania, which is still very segmented and, thus, cannot fully use its potential. According to Eurostat, in 2018, Romania ranked 6th among EU countries by agricultural area, with a total of 7.3% of arable land in the EU, but even if we are growing, we rank only 8th of the total agricultural production, with a production of EUR18.6 billion, just 4% of the EU total. This shows Romania’s agriculture has a huge potential that can be reached through consolidation of the players in this field. Diversity and segmentation are good, but when they lead to the fragmentation of a sector of the economy, they invariably also lead to problems accessing finance by small players. We want to see as many agribusiness companies as possible to follow the example of Holde Agri Invest and to attract money through the capital market and use that money for the acquisition of farms and for the development of agriculture,” said Radu Hanga, Bucharest Stock Exchange Chairman of the Board.
Only the class A (ordinary) shares of Holde Agri Invest, which represent 86.47% of the company’s share capital, were listed on the market. The difference of 13.53% of Holde Agri Invest shares is represented by class B (preferred) shares, which are not listed.
Prior to listing on the AeRO market, Holde conducted two rounds of financing by issuing new ordinary shares, attracting from the capital market investors a total of RON22 million.
“We are happy that through today’s listing we are proving that even a start-up can raise capital from Bucharest Stock Exchange investors as long as it has a sound business plan, attractive growth prospects and a solid corporate governance implemented. We will continue to use capital markets instruments to continue our development. Our intention is to deliver more premieres to the market, including acquisitions of companies and extension of the arable land through share swaps and capital increases by contribution in kind to build one of the most prominent players in the Romanian agriculture sector,” said Iulian Circiumaru, Holde Agri Invest board chairman.
Holde Agri’s core business is the exploitation of agricultural land it owns or leases through the companies it controls. The company’s business model implies purchasing existing vegetable farms, sometimes under-performing or with a capital deficit, in order to transform them into a modern and efficient operational company. Holde mainly targets farms of approximately 2,000 hectares, but also smaller farms are targeted for the operational consolidation of existing farms. Holde Agri Invest expects to reach a turnover of RON40 million at the end of this year and an EBIT margin of 17%.