SIF Transilvania commits to EUR 30 million tourism investments

Financial investment company SIF Transilvania has made tourism investments worth some EUR 100 million over the past five years and plans to invest another EUR 30 million in the next couple of years in order to finalize the projects already begun, said Gabriel Antohe, analyst in the company’s tourism and portfolio stock monitoring department, at the second edition of the International Investment Forum (IIF) organized by BR today.

SIF Transilvania has made so far investments in the infrastructure of the following hotel companies where it is majority shareholder: Aro Palace in Brasov (EUR 15 million), Orizont Turism in Preadeal (EUR 12 million), Turism Felix (EUR 21 million), Turism Lotus Felix which is an aqua park not yet finalized (EUR 10 million), THR Marea Neagra which manages all of the company’s seaside resorts (EUR 24 million), Tusnad (EUR 5.5 million), Turism Covasna (EUR 1 million), Tratament Balnear Buzias (EUR 5 million), THR Prahova (EUR 4 million). The latter investment project has been completed while the others are in average 75 percent finalized, he added.

“It is clear that these are not very good times to invest. If these projects weren’t ongoing we would have probably seen things differently. (…) When we took over these tourism assets – hotels, restaurants, spa centers – many of them were not functional. At that time we decided to invest in making them functional whether or not we will later sell them,” said Antohe. He added that SIF Transilvania is commited to complete the investment projects it has begun so from in the tourism sector even if it is difficult to make estimations about what the economic context will be in two years’ time.

The money for the projects mainly came from reinvested earnings, the investment fund having also increased its stake in many of the companies where it already was majority shareholder. “We did not find partners to join us. We hope to attract partners who know this sector – be it locals or foreigners – because the financial effort is too great for us to undertake on our own,” he said, adding that under the current law, the companies where SIF Transilvania is the majority shareholder are not eligible for EU funding.

Tourism assets represent 38.67 percent of SIF Transilvania’s portfolio.

Simona Bazavan

Read more about the IIF event in next week’s print edition.

In order to support Romanian tourism, Galvea Kelly, CEO of social media agency Brand Nua and winner of two awards in US for Online Video – Travel and Tourism and Online Video – Culture, made a video to show Romania in a new light and promote the country as a tourist destination: