Andrzej Sykulski
For Andrzej Sykulski, 31, the complex beginnings of Polish privatization in the mid-1990s was the perfect time to enter investment banking. Sykulski jumped in and now sits atop one of Poland's major investment banks.
When Sykulski graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) in 1994 he had already spent a year at consulting firm Central Europe Trust (CET), where he worked on such projects as the privatization of electrical engineering firm Energomontaz, tire manufacturer Stomil Olsztyn and steel exporter Stalexport. Lack of specialization in one industry led Sykulski, and the entire privatization team, to leave CET in 1995. With the backing of British investment bank MC Securities, Sykulski and other CET deserters launched MC Concordia, which sealed the deal in 2000 for the sale of 35% of Telekomunikacja Polska (TPSA) to France Telecom and Kulczyk Holding.
When MC Securities was sold to Belgium's Bank Brussels Lambert (BBL), which in turn sold its central European operations to Holland's ING Bank in 1998, Sykulski took a group of Concordia's directors and started the investment group KRS. But the newly formed group needed the backing of a large bank to enable it to perform public offerings, and in 1998 Sykulski entered talks with French bank BNP, which bought a majority stake in the company in 2000 and appointed Sykulski as chairman.
Past Notes:
1993 Started working for Central Europe Trust
1994 Graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics (SGH)
1995 Cofounded MC Concordia
1998 Set up KRS finance company
2000 KRS merged with Bank BNP
Word of advice:
"Investment bankers have to start working with private corporations set up at the beginning of the 1990s that have developed enough to make acquisitions, with good access to the capital market. We're going to see less work for the treasury, which will mean that decisions will be based on knowledge of the sector rather than politics."
