August 8 (SeeNews) - Capital Investments Fund (CIFund), a growth investment arm of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), has completed its first exit from a portfolio company by divesting its stake in Bulgarian furniture company M2 PROM to French retail, hotel and industrial furniture supplier Lindera, the BDB said on Monday.
Lindera acquired in full M2 PROM, in which CIFund held an unspecified equity ownership, the BDB said in a press release. Financial details of the transaction were not divulged.
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Thanks to CIFund's investment in the company in 2020, M2 PROM increased its revenue fivefold to 6.8 million levs ($3.5 million/3.47 million euro) in 2021, despite the economic difficulties borne out of the COVID-19 pandemic, BDB noted.
Over the same period, M2 PROM, which is based in the Bozhurishte industrial zone near Sofia, built a new production base, acquired new production software and created 18 new jobs, according to the statement. M2 PROM has produced made-to-measure furniture for clients such as Dior, Swatch, Tissot, Accor Hotels and travel retailer Lagardere.
Lindera increased its turnover to an estimated 57 million euro ($58 million) in 2021 from 37 million euro in 2020 and 54 million euro in 2019, its website shows. The company produces furniture for retail, hospitality, showrooms, luxury boutiques and corporate offices, among others.
CIFund was set up in 2018 to provide growth equity financing to Bulgarian small and medium enterprises. It has investments in children's footwear manufacturer Kolev&Kolev, sound insulation products maker Decibel, International Power Supply (IPS), a turnkey systems developer for the power management sector.
Last month, the fund agreed to invest 2.5 million euro in Econic One, a start-up for the production of smart electric bicycles in Bulgaria.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
($ = 0.99711 euro)