November 24, 2016 14:35 
Mid Europa Partners is the leading private equity firm focused on Central and South Eastern Europe, announced it has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of shares in Profi Rom Food, the largest supermarket chain in Romania, from Polish Enterprise Fund VI. This is the largest deal ever completed by a private equity firm in Romania and the largest retail deal in the country's history.
Profi is a modern retail network with the widest geographical spread in Romania, having a strong presence in almost 250 cities, smaller towns and villages. Profi operates two store formats in urban areas, Standard and City, and recently developed Loco, a successful format for rural parts of the country. In aggregate, it operates from almost 500 stores and will have sales of 800 million euro in 2016. It is the first retail chain in Romania to have created a brand dedicated to rural customers and aimed at reaching regions previously unavailable to modern retail. Today Profi is one of the top employers in Romania, with nearly 11,000 employees.
The seller, Polish Enterprise Fund VI is a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors. The fund acquired Profi for about 66 million euro in 2010.
RTPR Allen & Overy has advised the private equity fund Enterprise Investors in relation to the sale of Profi supermarket chain to Mid Europa Partners, in the largest deal ever completed by a private equity fund in Romania and the largest deal in the retail sector in the country’s history. The transaction is subject to approval by the Competition Counsel.
The RTPR Allen & Overy team that advised Enterprise Investors in relation to this matter was led by Costin Tărăcilă (Managing Partner), assisted by Roxana Ionescu (Counsel), Alina Stăvaru (Counsel), Andrei Mihul (Associate) and Laurențiu Tisescu (Associate) as well as a numerous team of lawyers who assisted on the due diligence process and transaction documents.
Sebastian Król, the Enterprise Investors partner responsible for this investment said: “I truly appreciate Costin's and his team support, contribution and hard work. (…) This is the most successful transaction in the retail sector in Enterprise Investors’ history, and we are proud to have been a part of Profi’s success story.”
Costin Tărăcilă declared: “Firstly I would like to congratulate Enterprise Investors team for signing a transaction of such dimensions and to thank them for putting their trust in our team one more time. We are honoured and proud to have contributed to the successful realisation of this deal.”
RTPR Allen & Overy has also been involved in the acquisition of Profi supermarket chain by Enterprise Investors, on the seller’s side at the time, Profi Rom Food.
Enterprise Investors is one of the oldest clients of RTPR Allen & Overy, RTPR lawyers have assisted them in relation to several transactions in Romania, among which we can mention the most recent ones that have been concluded this year such as the acquisition of Noriel group and the sale of Smartree Romania, as well as older deals such as the exit from Siveco Romania, the acquisition of Macon and Simcor or the acquisition and subsequent sale of Artima.
