Carlyle comes to Poland
Global private-equity titan the Carlyle Group has opened up its operations in Poland. Warsaw will be the headquarters of the company's unit responsible for the CEE region.
"We see long-term opportunity in Central and Eastern Europe," Carlyle's co-founder and managing director Daniel D'Aniello said. Apart from Poland, Carlyle plans to operate in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states. It may also invest in Ukraine, Serbia and Croatia.
Apart from its status as a worldwide private-equity powerhouse, the Carlyle Group has also garnered attention for its political links, as well as for its links to the bin Laden family. George Bush senior was an advisor to the company until 2003, and estranged relatives of Osama bin Laden were investors in the Carlyle Group until October 2001.
Carlyle's operations in the CEE region will focus on capital investments and acquisitions of healthy, growing companies in sectors such as consumer products, industrial production, retail, IT and media, pharmaceutical and healthcare segments as well as financial services. The company didn't disclose the value of its investment in the CEE region. However, it said that around half of the investment in the region will take place in Poland. "Eventually we will invest more than any other firm operating in the country," the managing director for the CEE team, Ryszard Wojtkowski said. The largest fund in Poland is the Polish Enterprise Fund VI, established by Enterprise Investors (EI), and boasts capital reaching zł.658 million.
EI isn't impressed by the new force on the market. Its president Jacek Sawicki said that it would be nice if Carlyle created a fund or at least disclosed how much they want to invest, rather than announce that they will invest more than anyone else. He points out that a large fund doesn't necessarily mean success. "The number of firms in which you can invest a large amount of money in this region is limited ... It's a question of whether they will manage to invest the money," he said.
