Enterprise Investors readies investments

Polish investment fund management company Enterprise Investors could launch a new investment fund by yearend, whose final capitalisation will stand at 500-600 million euros, and will target projects in the Central and Eastern Europe, Romania included.

The fund will be called Polish Enterprise Fund VI and will invest half of the money raised in Poland and the rest in nearby countries.

“Unlike the other funds of the company, which allocated 60% of the capital to Poland and the rest to destinations abroad, this fund will invest the money in equal shares,” Lucian Perl, investment manager of Enterprise Investors for Romania and Bulgaria stated yesterday.

He added the fund would pursue investments in financial service companies, in consumer product companies, telecommunications, trade and medical service companies.

“Investments in a company will probably be higher compared with those allocated for a project through the other funds of Enterprise Investors,” Perl added. In the case of Polish Enterprise Fund V, the latest fund launched by Enterprise Investors whose capitalisation stood at 300 million euros, investments in a company range from 3 to 45 million euros.

Polish Enterprise Fund V will make a new acquisition on the Romanian market by the end of the year.

“We are in talks with a number of companies, but nothing is certain yet. Talks will continue and we hope we will have a transaction in Romania by yearend. We have some money left,” Perl added.

Enterprise Investors manages five investment funds whose cumulated capital is worth over 1.1 billion euros and is the biggest private equity firm in Central and Eastern Europe.

The funds managed by Enterprise Investors have invested more than 850 million euros in nearly 100 companies in the region.

Enterprise Investors last year bought retailer Artima, a business developed by businessman Florentin Banu and the investment fund SEAF Trans-Balkan Romania Fund. The value of the deal stood at 17 million euros.