DBG raised &#836467.2m for Eastern Europe

DBG Eastern Europe, part of German private equity firm Deutsche Beteiligungsgesellschaft, has completed a first closing of its second fund at €67.2 million. The fund, DBG Eastern Europe II, hopes to raise a total of €80 million, with a second close later in 2003. The new fund has been backed by all of the firm’s existing investors.

The fund will focus on later stage investments such as expansion financings, management buyouts and buy-ins and industry consolidation transactions. It will primarily target the core EU accession countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, where it has offices. The secondary focus will be on Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Eastern Europe and the Baltic Republics.

DBG Eastern Europe also manages DBG-Osteuropa-Holding, which raised DM100 million in 1997. The investors in the fund were Deutsche Bank, Mitsubishi Corporation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and DEG, the German government’s finance and consulting agency for development policy. This fund has already returned nearly four times its original investor commitments.

Investments made by the first fund include; Cenega, a holding company controlling two computer games businesses active in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland; Hungarocamion, one of the biggest road transport and freight forwarding companies in Central and Eastern Europe; Print Polska, which provides services in commercial printing; and PWN, the fourth largest publishing group in Poland. The fund also invested €6.4 million in Czech On Line, a Czech Internet Service Provider, which was sold to Telekom Austria for $220 million in July 2000.