Bridgepoint buys controlling stake in CTL Logistics

International private equity fund Bridgepoint has purchased a 75% stake in Poland's largest private railway company, CTL Logistics, from the company's founder Jarosław Pawluk. The deal marks the fund's first investment in Poland and Eastern Europe and certainly not its last as it announced it will be taking over other, as yet unnamed, companies in the sector. The value of the CTL transaction was not revealed, but it is known that Bridgepoint paid a few hundred million Euro for the shares. "This is the largest transaction of this type in Poland this year, the largest ever with an individual and the second largest acquisition of a Polish company by a private equity fund," said Wojciech Napiórkowski of Bridgepoint. The fund declared it will aim to strengthen CTL Logistics' position in both foreign and domestic markets, and it believes that the company could become the largest private railway operator in Europe, where it is currently the third largest. "Most of all we want to strengthen our share in commodity transport in the East-West corridor, connecting Eastern and Western Europe," said Wojciech Napiórkowski. CTL Logistics could be floated on the bourse within 2-3 years. (Parkiet, pp. 1, 10; Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1; Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 14-15) M.M.