Tender Says Prospectiuni Ready To Tap Into African Resources

05.18.2011 ZF English

Businessman Ovidiu Tender is prepared to invest several hundred million euros in Africa in technical and classical crops over the next ten years, in the oil and mineral resources sector, anticipating an international food crisis and a potential wave of recession over the next few months that may sweep Romania after the fall of the US real estate market.

Investments are made through Prospectiuni (PRSN.RO), a stock-exchange listed company controlled by Tender, specializing in exploring mineral resources.

On the other hand, two of the big companies of the Tender group, Fecne and Nuclearmontaj, which produced equipment for nuclear power stations and were among the most powerful industrial companies in Romania, are insolvent.

"The US real estate market, which had started to get back on its feet, has fallen again, so we should expect a decline in Romania, as well, over the next few months.

I think the premises of a future food crisis are starting to emerge, the first signs are already showing. Worldwide, the population increases in a geometric progression, while food output increases in an arithmetic progression, which leads to a food deficit," says the Timisoara-based businessman.

He controls a group that employs 4,500 people and last year posted around EUR95 million in turnover. In 2008, the business of the Tender group amounted to $250 million (EUR171 million).

The shock that occurred on the metal market last fall, which led to a more than two-fold increase in the price of several basic raw materials and commodities in just one year reassures him that he has made a good choice in terms of plans to explore and exploit Western Africa resources.