Advent expands CEE team

Advent International, a global private equity firm, has recruited two new principals to its Central & Eastern Europe team following a busy investment period in the region.

Dan Morgan joins from Kaupthing, where he was director of the bank’s specialist private equity division since 2005, including leading a €465m (US$670m) management buyout of Refresco, a fruit juice and soft drink maker, from 3i in early 2006 and an £80m management buyout of ADP, a chain of dental practices, in March of this year.

Prior to ADP, Morgan spent nine years as an investment director with 3i in London and Stockholm.

Albana Vassileva has joined Advent’s Prague office, which opened in May of this year, having spent seven years with ABN AMRO Capital, the private equity arm of the Dutch bank, latter as vice president and senior investment manager covering TMT investments. Prior to that, she was with ING Baring in Sofia and Amsterdam.

The hires bring the size of Advent’s team focused on the region to 16 and follow two transactions in the last week: a €35m purchase of a 70% stake in Bucharest-listed ceramic bricks and clay roof tile producer Ceramica Iasi; and the acquisition of a 70% stake in Bulgarian ceramic tile manufacturer Kai Group.