E nterprise Investors’ Enterprise Venture Fund I has become the majority shareholder of Polski Bank Komórek Macierzystych (PBKM), acquiring 50.1% of the company’s shares for PLN 18.1 million. The deal was offered as expansion financing to the Polish stem cell bank and marks the fund’s fifth investment this year. PBKM plans to use the funding for expansion and acquisition in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the continued development of stem cell technologies and procedures.
Polski Bank Komórek Macierzystych (www.pbkm.pl)
Founded in 2002, Polish Stem Cell Bank S.A. (PBKM) is Poland’s largest such operation, providing harvesting and storage of umbilical chord stem cells used to treat dozens of diseases. As one of only two European stem cell banks to achieve AABB accreditation, and the fourth largest bank in all of Europe, PBKM provides stem cell storage for nearly 28,000 clients.
The bank’s headquarters and main storage facility are in Warsaw while it also maintains facilities in Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Spain.
2008 revenues for PBKM were near PLN 20 million and are expected to see an increase of 30% for fiscal 2009.
Enterprise Investors (www.ei.com.pl)
Enterprise Investors was established in 1990 with its initial $240 million Polish-American Enterprise Fund. It is the oldest firm of its kind Poland, managing private equity and venture capital funds in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. Seven funds have been created in the last eighteen years raising and investing a combine total in excess of €1.7 billion. With more than 90 investments fully exited, the firm has produced profits of more than €1.3 billion.
