The US-based company Advent International has created a new investment fund for Central and Eastern Europe with 330 million euros from investors. Up to 30% of the fund''s investments - no more than 99 million euros - will be targeted at Romanian companies.
Central and Eastern Europe has recently become increasingly attractive to investors, with the funds aimed at the region in greater and greater demand by investors.
The recently launched Advent Central and Eastern Europe III (ACEE III) fund will invest in companies in the region with operations in media, communications, medical services, construction supplies, financial services and retail.
According to Advent''s representative in Romania, Emma Popa-Radu, The main countries to which the fund will direct its investments are Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Turkey. "We have a strict allocation by country, with usually no more than 30% invested in a given country," she told Ziarul Financiar.
The main investors in the fund are Teachers'' Private Capital (a pension fund of Canadian teachers), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Alpinvest Netherlands (a Dutch pension fund manager). Nearly half of ACEE III''s capital is from investors that have never invested in this region before. This, managers say, proves that the interest of financial institutions in the Central Europe region has risen of late.
Advent''s investments in Romania through the other two funds for Central and Eastern European have so far been directed to the brewer Brewery Holding (owner of Ciuc and Gambrinus beer brands), mobile telephone operator MobiFon/ Connex, outdoor advertising company Euromedia and drug maker Terapia Cluj-Napoca.
Advent already pulled out from the first three companies and is now only involved in Terapia, in which it controls over 90%. "We are considering new transactions with the new fund," said Popa-Radu.
Over the last two years Advent funds have invested in Bolix, a Polish chemical constructions company, Danubius, a Hungarian radio station, Intercity, a Turkish railway carrier and Bulgarian Telecommunications Company.
The first two funds destined for Central and Eastern Europe have invested in 26 companies in the region until now. Half of these were later taken over by a strategic investor or sold through a public offering put out in view of floatation. The creation of two new investment funds with Romania on the list of countries in which they are seeking business was announced at the beginning of the year. Balkan Accession Management Company launched Balkan Accession Fund, which focuses on investments in Romania and Bulgaria.
The launch of the fund was the initiative of the two American investment funds operating in Romania and Bulgaria, the Romanian-American Enterprise Fund (RAEF) and the Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund.
American International Group''s investment management company will contribute up to 77 million euros to the investments in Romania from the total of 770 million euros it plans to raise. vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro
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