Prudential Closes $172 Million Private Equity Fund

Business Wire, Oct 19, 2000

Business Editors

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 2000

Targeting Companies in Central and Eastern Europe

ARGUS Capital Group, a unit of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, announced today it has closed a $172 million private equity fund focused on companies in Central and Eastern Europe. ARGUS said the fund's primary focus will be on companies in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, but it will also consider potential investments in Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Baltics, and Turkey.

The fund, ARGUS Capital Partners, received commitments from ten institutional investors from North America, Western Europe, the Far East and the Middle East.

"We see excellent growth potential for companies across Central and Eastern Europe, particularly those with capable and entrepreneurial management teams who want to partner with an active, hands-on investor like ARGUS," said Ali Artunkal, managing director of ARGUS Capital Group. "There are significant investment opportunities in the region given the rapidly growing economy and emergence of a strong entrepreneurial class as a result of a wave of privatizations. We expect this fund to help us build the foundation for being a leading long-term investor in the region."

Artunkal said the fund focuses on development capital, management and institutional buy-outs, joint ventures with strategic investors, privatizations, roll-up strategies, pre-IPO financing and recapitalizations of companies, with typical investments ranging between $5 million and $20 million. While it is a generalist fund, he noted it will closely examine underdeveloped industries, such as packaging, media and entertainment and telecoms; consumer goods and services companies; export-oriented firms, in particular automobile parts and chemicals; privatizations and specialty retail.

Artunkal said he expects the fund to invest its capital over the next three years. He said the fund has already made five investments in the region, including in FiberNet, one of the largest Hungarian cable television operators; in a joint venture with the highly successful British restaurant group Pizza Express PLC, which has already opened several casual dining restaurants in Poland and will soon be opening more locations across the region; and in Svoboda, the second largest commercial printer in the Czech Republic.

ARGUS Capital Group is a division of PRICOA Capital Group Ltd., which is a subsidiary of The Prudential Insurance Company of America. ARGUS Capital Group has a team of investment professionals located in London, Prague, Warsaw and Budapest.

Prudential has been an active player in the private equity market for more than 20 years and currently manages $3.3 billion of private equity investments in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the United States.

The Prudential Insurance Company of America, with more than $366 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 1999, is one of the largest life insurance companies in the United States and is among the largest financial institutions in the world. Prudential serves more than 17 million individual and institutional customers in over 30 foreign countries, offering a variety of products and services, including life insurance, automobile and homeowner insurance, securities brokerage and financial planning, mutual funds and annuities, asset management, retirement services, retail banking, real estate and relocation services.