Advent International, a global private equity investor, has closed its third fund for investment in Central Europe, ACEE III, at EUR330 million. The Fund, which Advent says is one of the largest raised for investment in Central Europe, will invest in high growth companies across the region, focusing on businesses in media, communications, healthcare, construction materials, financial services and retail.
Advent says it was the first international private equity firm to raise a fund for investment across Central Europe in 1994. The team, led by Joanna James, George Swirski and Chris Mruck, invests through local offices in Warsaw, Budapest and Bucharest and through investment partners in Prague, Bratislava and Istanbul. Advent’s two previous funds for investment in Central Europe have invested in 26 companies. Thirteen of these have been acquired by strategic buyers or had IPOs on local and international exchanges.
Major investors in ACEE III include Teachers’ Private Capital, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Alpinvest and nearly half of the capital for ACEE III came from investors that had not previously invested in the region.
In the last two years, Advent’s Central European funds have invested in Terapia (a Romanian generics pharmaceuticals company), Bolix (a Polish construction chemicals manufacturer), Danubius (a Hungarian radio station), Intercity (a Turkish car fleet management business) and Bulgaria Telecommunications Company (BTC). BTC and Danubius were awarded Emerging Markets Deal of the Year by Acquisitions Monthly in 2004 and 2005 respectively. BTC was listed in January 2005 on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. In the same period, Advent has exited from the following Central European deals: MobiFon, Oskar Mobil, Zone Vision, Euromedia, Radio Kolor and Slag Recycling.