Advent triples war chest for CEE

Advent International, a global private equity firm, has raised €1bn (US$1.6bn) for Central and Eastern Europe with the closing of its fourth CEE-focused fund, ACEE IV.

ACEE IV will invest between €30m to €100m of equity in transactions, supported by additional capital for larger deals from Advent’s most recent global fund, GPE IV, which raised €6.6bn earlier this month.

The new fund is approximately three times the size of its predecessor, ACEE III, which raised €330m in 2005.

Since 1994, Advent has invested in 35 companies in Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Advent has backed eight companies in five CEE countries in the last three years and has exited, or partially exited, seven investments, including Bulgaria Telecommunications Company, sold to AIG Capital Partners in a €1.66bn transaction; Terapia, a Romanian pharmaceuticals business, sold to Ranbaxy Laboratories for US$324m; and Zone Vision, sold to chellomedia, a unit of UnitedGlobalCom, in a US$80m deal.