The low-cost wing of Spanish airline Iberia, Vueling, has shown interest in acquiring Malev, the Hungarian national carrier. Malev is currently under distress and its ownership transfer is already under discussion with the National Development Ministry. The board of directors at Vueling are likely to make their decision regarding the purchase of the Hungarian airline [...]
Archive | Central & Eastern Europe
RSS feed for this section
Viennese PE Fund Lead Equities invests in German MCL-Group
Viennese firm Lead Equities has just invested in a 60-percent stake in German IT company MCL-Group. The majority-stake acquisition was completed by means of a partial owner buyout. Management-held shareholders retain the remaining 40 percent after the deal. Lead Equities is making this investment from its EUR 66 mln second fund, and the investment will [...]
Romanian tech start-up Summify is acquired by Twitter
Summify – a Romanian start up that uses social analytics data to create personalized news aggregation service for individual users, has been acquired by microblogging site Twitter. According to some analysts, this can be termed as talent acquisition by Twitter rather than a business purchase since Summify stopped accepting new users immediately after and will [...]
IT service provider EPAM Systems launches IPO
EPAM Systems, a global software development company with delivery centres across the Central and Eastern Europe region, announced the launch of its initial public offering. The company plans to offer 7,400,000 shares of its common stock at a price range of between USD16 and USD18 per share. Existing shareholders will sell about 5,882,353 shares while [...]
Sun Network Chief Joins Vyatta Board To Boost Cloud Business
Networking vendor Vyatta has recently added to its board of directors Sun Microsystems ex-Chief Networking Officer Geoffrey Baehr. The move is assumed to be part of their strategy to enhance their cloud business, which is one of their three offerings to clients – cloud, physical and virtual networking. Baehr was formerly with Sun Microsystems for [...]
Bulgarian telecom operator Vivacom being eyed for takeover
Four suitors, Telekom Austria, Turkcell of Turkey, Corporate Commercial Bank of Bulgaria and Icelandic businessman Thor Bjorgolfsson, are rumoured to be in the takeover race for Bulgarian telecom operator Vivacom. Known as the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) earlier, Vivacom’s bid period ends in about a month.
Euroventures Takes Second Dose Of Hungarian Med Market
After last year’s investment into Medimass, Euroventures once again takes the Hungarian pill and invests in the medical services sector in the country. For their first investment into Medimass, Euroventures secured more than HUF 400 mln. MediMass develops intelligent surgical devices that will help cancer surgeons determine which tissue is cancerous and which is not. The equipment will [...]
Russian internet group announces launch of new microblogging site Futubra
Mail.ru Group – the LSE-listed Russian internet company, has launched Futubra – a microblogging site that aims to rival current market leader Twitter. Though touted as the ‘Russian Twitter’ by some, with easily accessible users’ content and multimedia content sharing features, Futubra resembles Tumblr more. The site however, boasts of more advanced news group and [...]
Bortnik Fund To Back 500 Start Up Companies This Year
The Russian state-owned Bortnik fund will support up to 500 start-up ventures during the year 2012. The fund will provide a seed amount of up to USD 200,000 in financial support to companies during their first three years. The list of companies will be decided upon using the vehicle of a series of competitions dubbed [...]
Brainient lands $1.8 million in strategic funding
London based Information Technology firm has landed USD 1.8 million in funding from a handful strategic investors led by Prague-based Credo Ventures. Apart from existing investors Sherry Coutu and Dave Mclure, venture capital firms Estag Capital and Atlas Venture also participated in the funding round. The company plans to use the money to add new [...]
Russian billionaire co-invests in US startup
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner has co-invested USD 1.4 million in US based technology startup company Flotype. Milner along with Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce, Ignition Partners and Y Combinator provided the seed capital to the startup that offers a suite of technologies for real-time communication between any platform and any device.
EBRD To Own 15 Percent In Katren Russia Pharma Major
In a further move to strengthen its presence in the Russian pharmaceutical sector, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will take on a 15 percent (minority) stake in OJSC Katren Russia a privately held company operating pharmaceutical distribution and retail chains in Russia. The funds will be used to upgrade and expand Katren’s warehousing infrastructure [...]
BaltCap commits growth capital to laboratory supply provider Labochema
Labochema, a leading provider of laboratory supplies and related services in the Baltic region, has secured growth capital financing from Lithuania SME Fund.
EBRD To Provide €50 mln to Turkven PE Fund III
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is set to announce a EUR 50 mln fund to the Turkish fund Turkven PE Fund III for investment in mid-market companies in Turkey that will either involve buyouts or capital expansions. The hard-cap target for the fund is EUR 500 mln, and it seeks to invest in [...]
BaltCap Seeks To Invest €0.5 mln In Latvian M2M Company Vendon
The Baltic region’s leading PE fund, BaltCap, seeks to invest EUR 500.000 in Vendon, a Latvia-based draugiem.lv group company that provides telemetry-based monitoring solutions to international and local models of vending machines. The fund comprises moneys from the European Union Structural Funds as well as private investors. Vendon Vendon is a group company of Latvia-based [...]
Bosnia’s Telemach secures EUR 25 million loan from EBRD
Telemach – a cable TV operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been approved a EUR 25 million syndicated loan by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The company will use the money for upgrading its existing network and future domestic acquisitions. Telemach (www.telemach.si) Telemach is a leading provider of Slovenian cable TV, telephony [...]
Russian daily deal site Biglion secures USD 25 million in funding
Russian daily deal site Biglion has secured about USD 25 million in funding from prominent public and private equity investment firm Tiger Global Management. Launched in March 2010, Biglion is the leader in the domestic coupon market and has 7 million users with annual sales exceeding USD 150 million. The firm had received the first [...]
Private equity firm Carlyle acquires 48 pc in Bahcesehir a Turkish education provider
Global private equity firm the Carlyle Group announced it has acquired 48 pc stake in Turkish private education provider Bahcesehir Koleji. Existing significant shareholders Yucel and Karatas groups will stay invested in Bahcesehir as the country’s education sector is expected to grow at a brisk pace with rising incomes. Bahcesehir Koleji (www.bahcesehir.k12.tr) Established in 1994 [...]
Global Equity Partners Acquires Copper Winding Producer from Malaysian Parent
Global Equity Partners (GEP), Austria’s biggest private equity company, has signed a deal to acquire Asta Holding Ltd.
Turkish online retailer gets investment from Amazon
Ciceksepeti – a Turkish online gifts and flower start-up, has sold a minority stake to online retail giant Amazon. The Istanbul-headquartered company sells toys, flowers, jewelry, gourmet products and other gift items to customers across the country. Ciceksepeti (www.ciceksepeti.com) Founded in 2006 by CEO Emre Aydin, the 160 employee firm had earlier raised funding from [...]
