‘Unicorn’ is the name given in the IT industry to companies whose market value is higher than $1 billion and Europe is lagging far behind the US in this respect.
“eMag is on its way to becoming a unicorn,” Bob van Dijk, chief executive officer of South Africa’s Naspers group, the majority shareholder of eMag, told ZF.
The team in Romania still has some work to do before reaching this milestone, but the company is on course to reaching it. eMag is one of the crown jewels of the group. Dijk would not say how much eMag is valued at at the moment, explaining he is not a banker to be able to, but the company is valuable.
The retailer could have made profit last year if it had set out to, but its current focus was to not miss the significant opportunities for growth that still exist on the market, the Naspers CEO said.
The company has growth potential in Romania, as well as on emerging markets. It will not go to countries like Germany, it is interest in emerging markets, where the highest growth rates are, Dijk added.
Naspers, a group with global revenue of $12 billion from media, TV and electronic commerce, also owns payment processor PayU, classified websites OLX.ro and Autovit.ro in Romania but its most important asset is eMAg, which also took over fashion retailer Fashion Days last year. Naspers entered Romania by buying autovit.ro.
eMag expects to receive EUR1 billion worth of orders in 2017 (for the products it sells itself and those sold via its marketplace platform).
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)