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Black Sea Fund I, a 43-plus million euro investment fund dedicated to supporting small and medium-sized Romanian enterprises, acquires 70 percent of D-Toys, the most important local puzzle and children's games producer, the investment fund announced on Wednesday.
The value of the transaction is confidential.
D-Toys, Romania's largest independent producer of puzzles and educational games, was founded by businessman Tibor Fustos in 2001, and last year posted revenues of four million euros. The company produces educational games, board games and puzzles for children aged 3 to 14 years. D-Toys has a modern factory with 90 employees in central Sfantu Gheorghe, Covasna County, but is also present on the distribution segment both in Romania and in Germany or France, Agerpres informs.
"This transaction with the Black Sea Fund will allow us to rapidly grow the company and product range, improve the innovation process and massively increase the notoriety of our products in Romania, but also in countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland," D-Toys founder Tibor Fustos said.
Alex Bute, the future company CEO after the deal is finalized, said that this acquisition represents an interesting moment in the market. "Our customers are increasingly moving away from cheap imports from China as they are looking for entertainment, quality and innovation, and we are ideally positioned to serve them in Europe and beyond, as one of the few integrated producers in the EU. I am also excited to build an even stronger culture to serve our customers by expanding our current workforce by over 40 percent in the coming years," said Bute.
Black Sea Fund I is a recently launched private equity fund which aims to invest at least 4 million euros in the stake of Romanian small and medium enterprises. The main investor of Black Sea Fund I is the European Investment Fund, with resources from the Regional Operational Program co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund.
Black Sea Fund I was founded and is managed by a Romanian team, which includes four executive partners: Matei Paun, Arin Ion, Cornel Fumea and Adrian Vasile. Each of them has over 15 years of experience in areas such as private equity investments and asset management, investment/acquisition activities, as well as financial management.
