Vienna Capital Partners

Last updated

Vienna Capital Partners (VCP) is a corporate finance advisor and private equity investor headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

Contents

The company is mainly focused on corporate finance, direct investment and trust management in Central and Eastern Europe countries.

History

Vienna Capital Partners was founded in 1998 by its Senior Partner Heinrich Pecina, who was on the managing board of Creditanstalt Investment Bank (CAIB) from 1990 to 1997. VCP is owned by him and his partners (Christian Fischer, Guzel Gumerova, Christian Riener and Piotr Samojlik), either directly or through their family foundations, with Collegia Privatstiftung, an Austrian private foundation controlled by Heinrich Pecina, owning the majority. [1] [2]

Since the foundation in 1998 VCP has become an important dealmaker in Central and Eastern Europe. [3] For example, VCP was involved in the sale of Austrian Flaga to UGI Corporation (1999), in the buy-out and delisting of Austriamicrosystems together with Schroder Ventures (Austria 2000), in the acquisition of Pari Business Media Group by Bonnier Media Group (Bulgaria 2005), Celesio’s acquisition of Medika d.d. from Novartis (Croatia 2005) or in the sale of Hand-Prod to OneMed Group (Poland 2007). [4]

In the first half of 2010 VCP reported one of the most successful periods in the company’s history. In the first six months of 2010 VCP closed transactions with a total volume of 1.5 billion Euros. For the whole year VCP expects a total transaction volume of about 2 billion Euros. [5] In June 2010 VCP completed the biggest transaction in the company’s history: the restructuring of the Hungarian chemicals company BorsodChem, an isocyanates and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer. [5] On the Polish market, VCP was ranked second in Mergermarket's 2010 league table of M&A advisors. [6]

Subsidiaries

Operations

The company is focused on "Converging Europe", comprising the new EU-member states, potential future EU-accession candidates as well as other EU countries, such as Austria and Germany that are directly impacted by the ongoing convergence process. VCP is active in all industries with a special focus on medium-to-large-sized enterprises and serves a diverse range of clients including management teams, entrepreneurs, institutional investors and governments.

The company is active in three business areas: Corporate finance advisory (advisory on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and securities issues), direct investments and trust management services. Its offices in Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb [7] are supplemented by an international network of contacts and cooperative partners.

VCP and Russia

During the initial takeover of BorsodChem (in 2001), VCP has been suspected of secretly acting on behalf of Russian Gazprom. [8] In the report Gazprom's European Web, published by the Soviet dissident think tank The Jamestown Foundation, the authors further criticize the transaction's complex arrangements and saying that "this intricate set of maneuvers should have alerted EU regulators to investigate what appeared to be an unusually complex series of deals." [8]

In 2002, the Hungarian Prime Minister called for an investigation into the BorsodChem deal to examine these allegations. [9] The official investigation did not find any trace of collusion between VCP and the Russian companies [10] [11] and Hungarian daily newspaper Népszabadság had to publish a correcting article for its unfounded accusations. [12]

Investment in BorsodChem

VCP’s subsidiary CE Oil & Gas Beteiligung und Verwaltung AG became main shareholder of BorsodChem in 2001. [13]

2004 VCP sold off the greater part of its 91% holding in BorsodChem through an international secondary offering. [14] In 2006, VCP together with Permira successfully completed a public purchase offer for BorsodChem and delisted the company. [15]

In 2010 China's Wanhua Industrial Group became a 38% shareholder in BorsodChem and acquired a call option to purchase the remaining shares in the company within the next two years. The stake and call option were provided partly in return for a 140 million Euros investment from Wanhua, which BorsodChem would put towards the completion of a toluene diisocyanate (TDI) plant and a nitric acid facility at its main site at Kazincbarcika, Hungary. [16] Wanhua plans to raise its stake to 100% from the present 38% soon and to make BorsodChem responsible for the operations of the Wanhua group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. [17] In November 2010 BorsodChem reported that it will double its EBITDA in 2010 in comparison to a year ago, while revenues will increase significantly. [17]

Other major transactions in 2010

In 2010 VCP was also active in the following transactions in Converging Europe (extract):

Current and exited investments (incomplete list)

Current Investments:

Exited investments:

Recruitment of Austrian Interior Minister

Ernst Strasser, Austrian Minister of the Interior between 2000 and 2004, was a managing partner at VCP Energy Holding between 2005 and 2008. [23] He took care of energy projects in the new EU member countries in Eastern Europe and reportedly enjoyed a salary of 500,000 Euros per year. [24] Ernst Strasser's former cabinet secretary Christoph Ulmer was Executive Director of VCP-owned CE Oil & Gas Trading AG. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gazprom</span> Russian oil and gas company

PJSC Gazprom is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was, until 2023, ranked as the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world and the largest company in Russia by revenue. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Gazprom was ranked as the 32nd largest public company in the world. The Gazprom name is a contraction of the Russian words gazovaya promyshlennost. In January 2022, Gazprom displaced Sberbank from the first place in the list of the largest companies in Russia by market capitalization. In 2022, the company's revenue amounted to 8 trillion rubles. In 2023, the company is delisted from international markets, and continues substantial constriction in its operational results.

The Shtokman field, one of the world's largest natural gas fields, lies in the northwestern part of the South Barents Basin in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea, 600 kilometres (370 mi) north of Kola Peninsula. Its reserves are estimated at 3.8 trillion cubic metres of natural gas and more than 37 million tons of gas condensate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OMV</span> Austrian petrochemical company

OMV is an Austrian multinational integrated oil, gas and petrochemical company which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The company is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. In the 2021 Forbes Global 2000, OMV Group was ranked as the 413th -largest public company in the world.

The Österreichische Beteiligungs AG is an Austrian state-owned holding company that can be characterized as a sovereign wealth fund. It administers the investments of the Republic of Austria in partially or entirely nationalized companies. It is headquartered in Vienna.

ARETI International Group of Companies is a private energy company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. ARETI was created by Igor Makarov in 2015 following his sale of Itera International Group of Companies, which was started in 1992 and sold off in 2013. The ARETI group company consists of holding companies registered in Cyprus, Virgin Islands, and the Netherlands and has subsidiaries involved in the energy industry, civil and industrial engineering, and finance. The company operates primarily in Switzerland and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. In 2013, its main subsidiary, Itera Oil & Gas Company, was acquired by Rosneft prior to any sanctions placed on Rosneft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MOL (company)</span> Hungarian Oil and Gas Public Limited Company

MOL Plc., also known as MOL Group, is a Hungarian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. Members of MOL Group include among others the Croatian and Slovak formerly state-owned oil and gas companies, INA and Slovnaft. MOL is Hungary's most profitable enterprise, with net profits of $770 million in 2019. The company is also the third most valuable company in Central and Eastern Europe and placed 402 on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raiffeisen Zentralbank</span>

Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich A.G. (RZB) was a significant bank in Austria and the central institution of the Raiffeisen Banking Group (RBG) until its merger into its subsidiary Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wintershall</span> German oil and gas producer, 1894–2019

Wintershall Holding GmbH, based in Kassel, was Germany's largest crude oil and natural gas producer. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF. The company was active in oil and gas exploration and production with operations in Europe, North Africa, South America as well as Russia and the Middle East region. Wintershall employed more than 2,000 people worldwide. In the 2018 financial year the company produced around 171 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of oil and gas. Revenues amounted to 4.09 billion euros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Stream</span> Proposed natural gas pipeline through south-eastern Europe

South Stream is a canceled pipeline project to transport natural gas of the Russian Federation through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia further to Austria. It was never finished.

The Agrana Group is a food company based in Vienna that produces sugar, starch, fruit preparation, juice concentrate and ethanol fuel. Agrana is mainly supplying to international food industry, with some minor end customer business. A known brand is Wiener Zucker. Agrana runs around 50 facilities with major production bases in Australia, Austria, Argentina, Brasil, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Morocco, Mexico, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Ukraine, United States.

Ruhrgas AG was the largest natural gas transportation and trading company based in Essen, Germany. The company was founded in 1926 and it finally ceased to exist on 2 May 2013 when it was merged into E.ON Global Commodities SE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sakhalin Energy</span> Russian oil and gas company

Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. is a consortium for developing the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project with corporate head office in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Roman Dashkov has been the Chief Executive Officer since 2013.

Kneissl is a manufacturer of handmade skis, biking and tennis equipment and apparel, based in Kufstein, Tyrol, Austria.

INNIO Jenbacher designs and manufactures gas engines and cogeneration modules in the Austrian town of Jenbach in Tyrol. It is part of the INNIO portfolio of products and is one of their gas engine technologies; the other being Waukesha Engines. Jenbacher emerged from the former Jenbacher Werke, which was founded in 1959 and manufactured gas and diesel engines, and locomotives. The company was bought out by General Electric in 2003. In November 2018 the company became part of INNIO as part of an acquisition of Advent International and was renamed INNIO Jenbacher GmbH & Co. OHG.

Centrex Europe Energy and Gas AG is "an international group of companies operating in the natural gas sector, focussing on the extraction and marketing of natural gas reserves". It is believed to be a Gazprom front company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BorsodChem</span>

Wanhua-BorsodChem is a Hungarian chemical raw material manufacturing company headquartered in Kazincbarcika, Northern Hungary. It is the European member of the partially state-owned Chinese Wanhua Chemical Group. The company specializes in isocyanates, PVC and chlor-alkali (vinyl) businesses. The main production site is located in Kazincbarcika, Hungary but the production is also supported by other European production capacities located in Ostrava, the Czech Republic and Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Poland. Several branch offices are available in Hungary, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy and Poland. Since 2008 a new R&D and technical support center was established in Gödöllő.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Strasser</span> Austrian politician (born 1956)

Ernst Strasser is a former Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) politician and former Federal Minister of the Interior in Austria (2000–2004), Member of the European Parliament (2009–2011) and bearer of the "Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash". Since 2014, he works as an Entrepreneur in the Mergers and acquisitions sector and is also a hotel owner.

Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. known as Wanhua Chemical and formerly Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane or Yantai Wanhua Polyurethanes or Yantai Wanhua, is a Chinese listed company in chemical industry.

Wanhua Industrial Group Co., Ltd. is a Chinese holding company. It was the parent company of Wanhua Chemical Group and BorsodChem until 2018. Yantai Municipal People's Government, via Yantai Guofeng, still owned 39.497% stake of the company as of 2017. The government also sold 25% stake of the company to a consortium of Pemex and Deutsche Bank in 2007.

References

  1. ↑ People Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine , VCP website
  2. ↑ Austrian company database compnet.at
  3. ↑ "Hintergrund: VCP - die Strippenzieher". Wirtschaftsblatt. 2007-06-25.
  4. ↑ References Archived 2012-03-13 at the Wayback Machine , VCP website
  5. 1 2 3 4 "VCP erwartet 2010 Transaktionsvolumen von 2 Mrd. Euro". Boerse-Express.com (Austrian online finance platform Börseexpress). 2007-07-06.
  6. ↑ Unicredit liderem fuzji i przejęć w Polsce, Rzeczpospolita 2011-03-21
  7. ↑ VCP’s Geographical Network Archived 2012-03-13 at the Wayback Machine , VCP website
  8. 1 2 Gazprom’s European Web [ dead link ] (see Gazprom's European Web), Roman Kupchinsky, The Jamestown Foundation, 18 February 2009.
  9. ↑ Corporate Governance Risk Survey in Hungary [ dead link ]. Merit Research Working ePapers, No 5, June 2002.
  10. ↑ "Hungary watchdog ends BChem ownership probe". Reuters News. 2001-08-29.
  11. ↑ "VCP might buy Sibur's BorsodChem stake, Profil says". MTI Econews. 2002-02-20.
  12. ↑ "English translation of Helyreigazítás correcting article". Népszabadság. 2001-09-22. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2011-03-14.
  13. ↑ "CE Oil & Gas and Sibur Take Control of BorsodChem.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)". 2001-08-29. Archived from the original on 2012-10-11.
  14. ↑ "VCP completes disposal of BorsodChem stake for Euro357m". ICIS.com (news platform of global chemical industry). 2004-10-06.
  15. ↑ "Permira Funds and the VCP Group's public purchase offer for BorsodChem". MTI (Hungarian National News Agency). 2006-11-21. Archived from the original on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
  16. ↑ "China's Wanhua takes 38% stake in Hungary's BorsodChem". ICIS.com (news platform of global chemical industry). 2010-06-30.
  17. 1 2 "News, MTI (Hungarian National News Agency), 28.07.2010, VCP website". Archived from the original on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
  18. ↑ "MTI (Hungarian National News Agency)". Archived from the original on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
  19. ↑ "Press center". Archived from the original on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
  20. ↑ IK Investment Partners acquires majority stake in Agros Nova, a leading diversified food & drink company in Poland Archived 2011-07-13 at the Wayback Machine , IK Investment Partners, 14 June 2010
  21. 1 2 "Strasser wird VCP-Manager und hält auch 10 Prozent der VCP-Anteile". Boerse-Express.com (Austrian online finance platform Börseexpress). 2005-04-21. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
  22. ↑ http://polskigaz.pl/en/company/history.htm
  23. ↑ "FORMAT-Interview: Strasser & sein Boss Pecina über den Neo-Job des Ex-Ministers". News.at. 2005-04-21.
  24. ↑ "FORMAT exklusiv: Ernst Strasser wird Investmentbanker bei VCP Energy Holding". FORMAT. 2005-04-20.
  25. ↑ "Übernahme: Catro ohne Leissingers". DiePresse. 2008-01-11.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.