Raiffeisen plans major regional investment in medium-sized companies

Raiffeisen CEE Private Equity Fund (RPEF) of Austria, having opened an office in Poland, is planning over the next three years to invest between euro 100 million and euro 130 million in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. "Currently, we have at our disposal euro 85 million, out of which we have already invested more than euro 20 million," said Witold Szymanski, president of RPEF and of Raiffeisen Private Equity Management (RPEM). The fund's business is geared mainly towards investment in consumer-oriented medium-sized companies with an annual turnover amounting to between euro 15 million and euro 150 million, which deal in fast-moving goods, the media and entertainment. RPEF's average investment in such companies is from euro 3 million to euro 15 million over a period of three to five years. (Parkiet, p.7) M. S.-C