Vienna Capital Partners
Encyclopedia
Vienna Capital Partners is a corporate finance advisor and private equity investor headquartered in Vienna.
The company is mainly focused on corporate finance, direct investment and trust management in Central and Eastern Europe countries.
(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.
Since the foundation in 1998 VCP has become an important dealmaker in Central and Eastern Europe. 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).
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. 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. On the Polish market, VCP was ranked second in Mergermarket's 2010 league table of M&A advisors.
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 are supplemented by an international network of contacts and cooperative partners.
, 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."
In 2002, the Hungarian Prime Minister called for an investigation into the BorsodChem
deal to examine these allegations. The official investigation did not find any trace of collusion between VCP and the Russian companies and Hungarian daily newspaper Népszabadság had to publish a correcting article for its unfounded accusations.
2004 VCP sold off the greater part of its 91% holding in BorsodChem through an international secondary offering. In 2006, VCP together with Permira
successfully completed a public purchase offer for BorsodChem and delisted the company.
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. 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. In November 2010 BorsodChem reported that it will double its EBITDA in 2010 in comparison to a year ago, while revenues will increase significantly.
Exited investments:
, Austrian Minister of the Interior
between 2000 and 2004, was a managing partner at VCP Energy Holding between 2005 and 2008. 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. Ernst Strasser
's former cabinet secretary Christoph Ulmer was Executive Director of VCP-owned CE Oil & Gas Trading AG.
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 BankCreditanstalt
The Creditanstalt was an Austrian bank. The Creditanstalt was based in Vienna, founded in 1855 as K. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe by the Rothschild family...
(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.
Since the foundation in 1998 VCP has become an important dealmaker in Central and Eastern Europe. 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).
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. 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. On the Polish market, VCP was ranked second in Mergermarket's 2010 league table of M&A advisors.
Subsidiaries
- VCP Industrie Beteiligungen AG (formerly AURORA Holding AG)
- 100% of VCP Polska Sp. z o.o.
- 100% of CEE Oil & Gas Beteiligung und Verwaltung GmbH
- 100% of CE Oil & Gas Beteiligung und Verwaltung AG.
- 100% of VCP Energy Holding
- Ce Power & Energy Holding GmbH
- CE Oil & Gas Trading AG
- Ce Power & Energy Holding GmbH
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
Corporate finance
Corporate finance is the area of finance dealing with monetary decisions that business enterprises make and the tools and analysis used to make these decisions. The primary goal of corporate finance is to maximize shareholder value while managing the firm's financial risks...
(advisory on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and securities issues), direct investments and trust management services
Trust management
Trust management can be conceptualized in two ways. First, as a process by which individual A becomes trustworthy for other individuals. This trust is significant criterion of success and survival because it makes individuals to collaborate with individual A...
. Its offices in Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb 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. In the report Gazprom's European Web, published by the Soviet dissident think tank The Jamestown FoundationThe Jamestown Foundation
The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based institute for research and analysis, founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet dissidents. Today its stated mission is to "inform and educate" policy makers about events and trends, which it regards as being of current "strategic"...
, 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."
In 2002, the Hungarian Prime Minister called for an investigation into the BorsodChem
BorsodChem
BorsodChem is a chemical company headquartered in Kazincbarcika, Hungary, which produces and processes plastic raw materials and isocyanates. BorsodChem manages its two other production plants in Ostrava, the Czech Republic and Blachownia, Poland...
deal to examine these allegations. The official investigation did not find any trace of collusion between VCP and the Russian companies and Hungarian daily newspaper Népszabadság had to publish a correcting article for its unfounded accusations.
Investment in BorsodChem
VCP’s subsidiary CE Oil & Gas Beteiligung und Verwaltung AG became main shareholder of BorsodChem in 2001.2004 VCP sold off the greater part of its 91% holding in BorsodChem through an international secondary offering. In 2006, VCP together with Permira
Permira
Permira is a United Kingdom-based private equity firm with global reach. The firm advises funds with a total committed capital of approximately €20 billion....
successfully completed a public purchase offer for BorsodChem and delisted the company.
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
Toluene diisocyanate
Toluene diisocyanate is an aromatic diisocyanate. It is produced for reaction with polyols to form polyurethanes. It exists in two isomers, 2,4-TDI and 2,6-TDI . 2,4-TDI is produced in the pure state, but TDI is often marketed as 80/20 and 65/35 mixtures of the 2,4 and 2,6 isomers respectively...
(TDI) plant and a nitric acid
Nitric acid
Nitric acid , also known as aqua fortis and spirit of nitre, is a highly corrosive and toxic strong acid.Colorless when pure, older samples tend to acquire a yellow cast due to the accumulation of oxides of nitrogen. If the solution contains more than 86% nitric acid, it is referred to as fuming...
facility at its main site at Kazincbarcika
Kazincbarcika
Kazincbarcika is the third largest city of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary. It lies in the valley of the river Sajó, away from the county capital, Miskolc.-History:...
, Hungary. 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. In November 2010 BorsodChem reported that it will double its EBITDA in 2010 in comparison to a year ago, while revenues will increase significantly.
Other major transactions in 2010
In 2010 VCP was also active in the following transactions in Converging Europe (extract):- The public takeover of Croatian Belisce Group, a company in the paper and corrugated board industry, by Duropack AG, a subsidiary of Constantia-Packaging.
- The strategic cooperation of German financial services provider AllianzAllianzSE is a global financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core business and focus is insurance. As of 2010, it was the world's 12th-largest financial services group and 23rd-largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine.Its Allianz Global Investors...
and the Hungarian FHB BankFHB Mortgage BankFHB Mortgage Bank is Hungary's largest mortgage re-financer. Formerly state-owned, it was floated on the stock market in 2003, and the government sold its remaining A shares in 2007. As of 17 August 2011, FHB Mortgage Bank Co. Plc. has market capitalization of US$232.4 million.-External links:* * ...
that is specialized in real estate financing. This cooperation laid the groundwork for the acquisition of Allianz Bank by FHB Bank that took place in September 2010. - The closing of the sale of 100% of Central European Distribution Corporation’s (CEDC) Polish Wholesale Business to Eurocash SA.
- The acquisition of a majority stake in Agros Nova by IK Investment Partners.
Current and exited investments (incomplete list)
Current Investments:- A stake in FHB (Hungary), Hungarian mortgage bank
- A stake in BorsodChem (Hungary), PVC, TDI and MDI producer in Central and Eastern Europe
- A stake in OneMed Group (Finland), healthcare products distributor in the Nordic countries
- Moldovan bank Unibank S.A., purchased from Russian Petrokommertz, which was owned by LukoilLUKoilLukoil/LUKoil ; ) is Russia's second largest oil company and its second largest producer of oil. In 2009, the company produced 97.615 million tons of oil; ....
Exited investments:
- NCL Media Group (Croatia), Croatian publishing group "NacionalNacional (weekly)Nacional is a Croatian weekly newsmagazine published in Zagreb.-History:Nacional was started in 1995 by Denis Kuljiš, Ivo Pukanić and other journalists dissatisfied with the editorial policies of Croatian weekly newspaper Globus. Both publications were hostile to the ruling HDZ government...
". - "BlicBlic (newspaper)Blic is a tabloid daily newspaper in Serbia owned by Ringier AG group from Switzerland.Started in 1996, it has gone through a slight format change during the mid 2000s to include more in-depth coverage, but it is still, as its name aptly suggest, a paper devoted to quick, concise,...
", which publishes one of the highest-circulating newspapers in Serbia - 86,19% of Polski GazPolski GazPolski Gaz Sp z o. o. is a distributor of liquefied petroleum gas: propane and butane.Petrochemical Holding GMBH holds 100% share in Polski Gaz Sp. z o.o.....
. Grizzly Gas Holding holds remaining 13,81% of shares. Polski Gaz is the liquefied petroleum gas distributor in Poland. - 16,5% stake in Hungarian petrochemicals company Tiszai Vegyi Kombinát, manufacturer of olefins and polymers
- Austriamicrosystems (Austria), designer and manufacture of analog-digital integrated circuits (ICs) for the automotive, communication and industrial markets
- Cemet (Poland), rail bound transport company for cement, aggregates and other bulk goods
- Tankerska Plovidba (Croatia), shipping company
Recruitment of Austrian Interior Minister
Ernst StrasserErnst Strasser
Ernst Strasser is a former Austrian People's Party politician and Federal Minister of the Interior in Austria , and was a Member of the European Parliament...
, Austrian Minister of the Interior
Federal Ministry for the Interior (Austria)
The Federal Ministry for the Interior is a ministry of the Austrian federal government.It has offices in the Palais Modena. The current head of the ministry is minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner....
between 2000 and 2004, was a managing partner at VCP Energy Holding between 2005 and 2008. 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. Ernst Strasser
Ernst Strasser
Ernst Strasser is a former Austrian People's Party politician and Federal Minister of the Interior in Austria , and was a Member of the European Parliament...
's former cabinet secretary Christoph Ulmer was Executive Director of VCP-owned CE Oil & Gas Trading AG.