In the field of finance, private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public. Private equity is offered instead to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the companies. In casual usage, "private equity" can refer to these investment firms rather than the companies that they invest in.
Venture capital is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna is a Polish multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. It is among the largest financial institutions in Poland, and is also one of the largest financial groups in Central and Eastern Europe, with 1,145 branches located in Poland and abroad and a market capitalization of PLN 52 billion as of 2018.
Hortex is a company in Poland that produces frozen foods and branded fruit juices.
CVC Capital Partners is a Luxembourg-based private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$155 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, European and Asian private equity, secondaries and credit funds. As of 31 December 2021, the funds managed or advised by CVC are invested in more than 100 companies worldwide, employing over 450,000 people in numerous countries. CVC was founded in 1981 and, as of 31 March 2022, has over 650 employees working across its network of 25 offices throughout EMEA, Asia and the Americas.
PZU, also known as Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń Spółka Akcyjna, or PZU SA is a publicly traded insurance company, a component of the WIG30 stock market index and Poland's biggest and oldest insurance company. PZU is headquartered in Warsaw and is the largest financial institution in Poland. It is also the largest insurance company in Central and Eastern Europe.
In finance, the private-equity secondary market refers to the buying and selling of pre-existing investor commitments to private-equity and other alternative investment funds. Given the absence of established trading markets for these interests, the transfer of interests in private-equity funds as well as hedge funds can be more complex and labor-intensive.
Złota 44 is a residential skyscraper in central Warsaw, Poland. It was designed by Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind, in association with Polish architects Architecture. It was developed by US real estate investment manager Amstar and Warsaw developer BBI Development, which bought the topped-out but unfinished building from its initial developer, ORCO.
A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leveraged buyout, venture capital, and growth capital. Often described as a financial sponsor, each firm will raise funds that will be invested in accordance with one or more specific investment strategies.
Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. is a global, full-service investment banking and financial services company that specializes in wealth management and brokerage in capital markets. It is the largest independent investment dealer in Canada. The firm focuses on growth companies, with operations in 10 countries worldwide and the ability to list companies on 10 stock exchanges. Canaccord Genuity, the international capital markets division, is based in Canada, with offices in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Dubai, Australia, and Barbados.
Netia is a telecommunications company which owns the second-largest fixed-line cable television and broadband network in Poland. The company was founded in 1990 and the following year was awarded its first concession to provide local telecommunications services in the city of Piła. Three years later, the company built and opened its own first network in the city of Świdnik. The company reached 100,000 subscribers in 1998, acquired its current name in April 1999 and was listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2000.
Penta is a Central Europe investment group founded in 1994 in Slovakia by Czech Marek Dospiva and Slovaks Jaroslav Haščák, Juraj Herko, Martin Kúšik and Jozef Oravkin.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund is Russia's sovereign wealth fund established in 2011 by the Russian government to make investments in companies of high-growth sectors of the Russian economy. Its mandate is to co-invest alongside the world's largest institutional investors, direct investment funds, sovereign wealth funds and leading companies.
The Government Investment Unit of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesia Investment Agency or Pusat Investasi Pemerintah (PIP), is a sovereign wealth fund managed by the country's Ministry of Finance. Established in 2006 with a balance of $340 million, the PIP invests in a variety of asset classes such as equity, debt, infrastructure and direct investments. Some of the PIP's goals are to increase macroeconomic stability, economic growth, and government investment and it aims to follow in the successful footsteps of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional.
Eaton Partners is a global placement agent that assists in raising capital for funds managed by some of the largest private equity firms, hedge funds, real assets and real estate funds in the world. The firm is also one of the oldest placement agents in the private funds industry. Eaton Partners raises capital primarily from institutional investors including private and public pension funds, endowment funds, family offices, fund of funds, foundations and other large pools of money that invest in alternative asset classes.
Tomasz Czechowicz is a Polish entrepreneur and a private equity investor. He is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of MCI Capital SA, one of the most dynamic private equity groups in Central and Eastern Europe. He also serves on the supervisory boards of multiple companies. Czechowicz manages a group of investment funds active in Poland and across Central and Eastern Europe. The funds are primarily focused on supporting companies in the technology and internet services sectors.
Mariusz Świtalski is a Polish entrepreneur. He is the founder of Elektromis, Eurocash, Biedronka, Żabka, and Małpka Express and has been named one of the richest people in Poland by Wprost weekly.
Venture capital in Poland is a segment of the private equity market that finances early-stage high-risk companies based in Poland, with the potential for fast growth. As of March 2019, there is a total of 130 active VC firms in Poland, including local offices of international VC firms, and VC firms with mainly Polish management teams. Between 2009–2019, these entities have invested locally in over 750 companies, which gives an average of around 9 companies per portfolio. The Polish venture market accounts for 3% of the entire European ecosystem of VC investments, mainly in the digital space.
Beesfund is a Polish equity crowdfunding platform based in Warsaw, Poland. Managed by its eponymous company founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Arkadiusz Regiec, it is one of the first crowdfunding platforms in Poland, and Central and Eastern Europe. As of May 2020, 74 public offerings (issuances) were carried out on the platform, for a total amount of PLN 47M, collected by over 48,000 registered investors.
Opontia is an e-commerce company founded in February 2021 by Philip Johnston and Manfred Meyer.
