Glissando Garden Center debuts today at BVB

Glissando Garden Center, a company specialized in the trade of flowers, plants, gardening articles and plant protection products, is listed today on the AeRO Market, according to an announcement by the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).

The company is the Home & Garden division of the Glissando group of companies from Timişoara, being the largest company in the west of the country specialized in the trade of flowers, plants and garden items. The company operates two Garden Center stores in Timişoara and Lovrin, with an integrated system of solutions in the form of a "one stop shop", according to the listing memorandum drawn up by Goldring.

Glissando Garden Center is oriented towards a market closer to the DIY (DO IT YOURSELF) principle. "The target market served by Glissando targets both agribusiness professionals (small and large farmers), as well as gardening enthusiasts or followers of the DIY concept for arranging homes, offices, restaurants, terraces, parks, greenhouses or gardens," the memorandum states.

Essentially, the Glissando Garden Center offer is structured in three categories - plants (with over 40% of last year's sales); home and garden products; phytopharmacy. In 2023, the total value of sales amounted to 22.3 million lei, of which two thirds were sales to retail, in the two stores. 21% of sales represented the distribution of gardening products of the Polish company BROS, and 12% were intra-group transactions, i.e. the sale of products from the Glissando Garden Center range to Glissando SRL, a party affiliated with the issuer.

The company's supply system is subject to the specifics of retail store chains, 60% of products being imported, the memorandum also states.

The anticipated capitalization of the company is between 20.9 million lei and 37.6 million lei, according to the market evaluation of the company carried out by the intermediary, based on the expectations of the management of Glissando Garden Center and the prospects of the market in which the company operates, after as shown in the listing document.

• Growth estimates for the Home & Garden market in Europe in the coming years

At the European level, the Home & Garden market is expected to grow during the period 2023 - 2028, according to the latest studies. Statista estimates the market to grow at a CAGR of 2.05% during the forecast period, with expectations to reach $79.59 billion by 2028.

"In Romania, the Home & Garden market is expected to grow annual growth of 3.87%, in the forecast period 2024 - 2028, according to the most recent studies", the document also states.

Glissando Garden Center has two strategic objectives, namely: 1 - Expansion of the network of Garden Center stores in the big cities in Romania (Cluj, Iaşi, Braşov); 2 - The development of a marketplace inspired by the Dutch model and the implementation of a floral hub that includes a diversified range of over 1,500 species.

The company has distributed dividends in the last two years, and the memorandum states that, "the issuer will take into account the company's financing needs, its involvement in new projects or possible acquisitions, aiming for a balance between the investment policy and the dividends, but also by investors' expectations".

Currently, Ioan Biianu owns 80.1% of Glissando Garden Center, the remaining 19.9% being free-float. According to the information in the document, in the next six months after the listing, the majority shareholder undertakes to support the liquidity of the share by putting up for sale shares representing up to 10-15% of its own holdings, depending on market conditions.

Last year, the turnover of Glissando Garden Center amounted to 22.3 million lei, 12.6% below that of 2022, while the net profit was 0.92 million lei, increasing by 56.9% , on the background of the decrease in expenses to a greater extent than that of incomes. The company explains the decrease in turnover by the slowdown of sales activity in the intra-group sales segment (-66.38%), while sales to retail continued its growth.

The total assets were 31.7 million lei, down 7.3% compared to the value in 2022, the current assets being 17.2 million lei. Total debts amounted to 22.8 million lei, 12.6% lower than those of the previous year, the short-term ones being 5.83 million lei.

"The company does not appreciate difficulties regarding the payment of payable debts, the value of current assets exceeding the value of current liabilities three times", the memorandum states.

For this year, Glissando Garden Center has budgeted business of 26.5 million lei, which will increase to 33.8 million lei next year and 43.4 million lei in 2026. The net profit is estimated at 1.06 million lei in 2024, respectively 1.35 million lei in 2025 and 1.74 million lei the following year, according to the information in the listing document.