Saša Uzelac, "FCI-Fisher Group International" – Expansion of acquisitions and mergers in Serbian market

(Saša Uzelac)

The trend that includes mergers of local companies and the entrance of strategic partners in Serbian companies is already present in the civil engineering sector, primarily low-rise building, because the most lucrative companies – sugar plants, breweries and cement factories – were sold in the first wave of privatization. We are now entering the second phase that will be marked by the mergers of local companies and big international players, which find Serbian market interesting because of the CEFTA Agreement and Free Trade Agreement with Russia, as well as because of the manpower - Saša Uzelac, the representative of "FCI-Fisher Group International" for Serbia, said in the interview for eKapija and pointed out that he expected that certain number of our companies would expand within the region, following the examples of "Delta Holding", "MK Commerce" and "ComTrade" .

- Company "FCI-Fischer", which entered Serbian market in March 2008, offers completely new consulting services to both companies in Serbia and investors from abroad. We are willing to help all companies that plan to expand to the other markets and want to find a partner for takeover, merger or founding of new enterprises. We are exclusively working with the entities that are already privatized, we are not buying enterprises on the auctions or on tenders. We usually negotiate directly with the majority or the only owner – Uzelac explains.

Company "Fisher" satisfies the needs of both those companies that want to be sold and those companies that are seeking the companies to take over. Uzelac points out that their advantage lies in the network of offices and the experience that has been gained since 1966.

- We are currently present in more than 40 countries, we implemented about 2,400 projects and transactions, which guarantees our clients that we can find strategic partner and suitable company for them in the markets of these countries in record time. Our portfolio includes large and mid-sized enterprises. Strategic partner usually want to buy large companies that already have capacities and resources at their disposal.

"FCI-Fisher" organizes presentation of such company in the market, trying to find the strategic partner for that company, and the whole process consists of three phases.

The first phase is the design of the company’s profile, which requires much time and effort in order for all potentials and aspects of work to be examined. After that, it is necessary to carry out selection of the potential strategic partners that, based on the collected information, usually shortlists 3 to 5 possible partners. The third phase includes bilateral negotiations between the partners and signing of the contract on cooperation (joint venture, takeover…).

The whole process, according to the words of Uzelac, can take six months to two years, depending on the process’ complexity.

- That is a serious step because nobody wants to buy ”a cat in the bag“. We are using the services of renowned international consulting companies that help us design "due diligence". We are cooperating with companies like PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, etc. - says Uzelac.

At the moment, "FCI-Fisher" implements several projects worth between 5 and 15m EUR.

As Uzelac explains, the whole game in the following period will be reduced to two options: you are either on the team of big players or you fail.

- All those companies that are willing to enter partnerships and to seek strategic partners will try to merge horizontally, but big companies will not allow development of new big players. Therefore, I think that the majority of mergers will be vertical, which is good by the definition because the strategic partner should introduce new technology and increase efficiency, Uzelac explains.

He points out that Serbian market is, traditionally, the most interesting to Austrians and Italians (in the sector of textile industry, leather and footwear production), while the Americans are interested in the food production sector in Serbia.

- "FCI-Fisher" made the decision to enter the market because our opinion is that the situation with ownership relations is now much clearer than it was in 2006 when we carried out the first acquisition of some company. There is a large number of companies in Serbia that have grown from small to mid-sized ones thanks to autochthonous development and they will now experience abrupt development – Uzelac concludes.

"FCI- Fisher" successfully operates in Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine, while the market of ex-Yugoslavia will be covered from Belgrade, which will represent some kind of the regional center for the Western Balkans, which excludes Slovenia and includes Albania.