Investors crowding to CEE

The growth potential of the Central and Eastern European countries that could become European Union members by 2007, Romania included, pushes for a faster pace of raising new investment funds for this area. Three European financial groups have recently announced they had raised or were about to raise cash for investment funds in the CEE region, with the total capital allocated amounting to over 270 million euros, according to Europe Venture Capital Journal. Copernicus Capital Partners, part of the Polish Copernicus Group, is planning to establish the first fund to financially support investment funds, a so-called fund of funds in 2004 and anticipates at least $100 million (81.36 million euro) investments in CEE. The new fund in the making, The Copernicus South-East Europe Fund will expand to Romania, Bulgaria and other emerging Balkan countries. Slovakian Group Poteza in its turn decided to launch a new investment fund, Poteza Adriatic Fund that might bring more than 75 million euros to the CEE region. The fund is interested in the opportunities in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania. Also, UK’s Mezzanine Management has recently completed the steps to establish Accession Mezzanine Capital (AMC), the first Central European fund (115 million euros) aimed at companies halfway between start-up and floatation. ZF