Arobs Transilvania stands high chances of being the first IPO from the IT&C field on the Bucharest stock market. Software solution production together with the rest of IT activities have boomed in recent years, but the field is not represented at all on the Bucharest stock market. Thus, local investors such as private pension funds, mutual funds and retail investors do not have access to an extremely hot domain.
“We have been mulling the opportunity of floatation on the Bucharest bourse for some time. The exact moment of floatation will be set together with the consultants we are working with,” Voicu Oprean, the entrepreneur who owns 90% in the company’s capital, told ZF.
The rest of 10% is held by Finnish investment fund Berling Capitals.
With a portfolio of clients from 14 countries, Arobs provides solutions for travel, transport companies, for sales force automation, car park localization, GPS navigation, financial and health services.
Oprean says he had the first contacts with BVB representatives three years ago, when the bourse was run by Valentin Ionescu.
Arobs business has all the ingredients of the IT&C industry. The company was founded by Voicu Oprean in 1998, with the money he saved after working for several months at a US IT company. Now, the company has reached 350 employees and revenue of above RON45 million. In the past five years, the company has posted annual revenue increases of 15%-20%, and reported profit each year. Over 60% of the company’s revenue are generated by software exports to the EU.
For the coming years, the entrepreneur plans to develop Arob by acquiring local and regional rival companies. The company already has two subsidiaries abroad, in the Republic of Moldova and Hungary.
“We want to get listed to raise funding for rival acquisitions. We’ve already identified several acquisition targets,” said the entrepreneur. He added Arobs recently acquired the client portfolio of a local fleet management company.
The entrepreneur is aware Arobs stands high chances of being the first IT company to be listed on the Bucharest bourse. “I am amazed no IT company has been listed on the bourse. Being the first is not necessarily an advantage. It would be good for me to be the first of a larger series of companies listing on the Bourse,” said Oprean.
No private company has been listed on the Bucharest bourse since 2008.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)