Ioan Tecar, a Romanian entrepreneur who runs a 125 million-euro, 1,300-employee business in the town of Dej, raised his profile after signing a 6 million-euro agreement with the EBRD in May 2009, the first involvement of the bank in Romanian non-bank private business.
Tecar, 50, has built his 13-company group, which operates in production, via several acquisitions, largely of companies close to bankruptcy.
This is what he says about his biggest takeover, paper manufacturer Pehart Tec in Petresti (near Sebes), a transaction completed in 2005: "I had to connect to the public lighting system when I got to Petresti in order to see what I was buying, because the plant did not even have electricity. After all, I paid over two million euros for the plant's assets," says Tecar, referring to one of Romania's biggest communist-era paper plants.
Tecar attracted the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as a Pehart Tec shareholder. The Dej-based businessman managed to persuade EBRD representatives to come up with 6 million euros to develop the company, which manufactures tissue paper (tissues, toilet paper, roll towels), which posts over 20 million euros per year.
"We lost a lot in the first two years after taking over Pehart Tec, because the paper industry is energy and gas intensive, but following investments made here, we started to see a rise," said Ioan Tecar. The capital infusion will be used for boosting production and for investing in a thermal-energy installation. Tecar put together the management of the paper plant by taking over employees from the Dej plant.
"We had this advantage. We took six managers, moved them to Sebes, rented homes for them, and we grew in an industry which has not been very much affected by the crisis," said the Dej-based businessman.
The businessman continues to live in Dej, Cluj county, and, while being aware that the area will remain an industrial one, is trying to turn it into a civilised place. "I have enough money to live anywhere in the world, but I prefer to stay in Dej and develop my business," says Tecar.
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