Enterprise Investors delays $60 million IT investments due to over-valuation

Enterprise Investors (EI), the company that manages the biggest domestic venture capital funds, plans to invest as much as $60 million in IT companies over the next three to four years. However, for the moment EI is holding off on the investment, citing the companies' inflated estimation of their own worth. At the end of last year, EI established the Polish Enterprise Fund IV, with capital of some $220 million, 80% of which is earmarked for investment in Poland. Although part of the funds have been set aside for the IT sector, EI has to date not purchased any shares in IT companies. "Talks with IT companies are very difficult, as they value their assets based on history and on evaluation parameters appropriate for when high-tech companies were booming," said Zygmunt Grajkowski, the Enterprise Investors partner responsible for the IT sector. In view of the downturn in the IT sector, EI has turned to other investments, among them the purchase of $10 million worth of shares in ice cream maker Zielona Budka, and the acquisition of $13 million of stock in parcel carrier Stolica. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) M.T.