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Equity investment to boost Polish manufacturer
Consortium buys 80% stake in DGS
A consortium of investors including the EBRD, the Polish Enterprise Fund V and
Dutch fund managers AlpInvest has acquired 80 per cent of Poland’s
Przedsiebiorstwo Produkcyjno-Handlowe DGS Sp. z o.o. for €96 million. The
remaining 20 per cent will stay in the hands of Krzysztof Grzadziel, president
and a founding DGS shareholder. The EBRD commitment is up to €8 million.
DGS, located in the central Polish city of Włocławek, has been a manufacturer
of metal closures for alcoholic beverage bottles and glass jars since 1991. It
is the leader on the Polish market and a significant player in Europe. Over
half of the company’s profits come from exports to countries of the former
Soviet Union and to the EU. In 2004 the company’s revenues rose 16 per cent to
PLN 215 million (€54 million).
Hans Christian Jacobsen, EBRD Agribusiness Team Director, said equity
transactions are a focal point of EBRD activity in Poland. The Bank’s
involvement will support DGS’s in its further eastward expansion, stimulating
competition in the closures industry, he added.
Polish Enterprise Fund V is managed by Enterprise Investors, one of the most
established fund management companies operating in central and Eastern Europe.
The EBRD has committed up to €60 million to the fund to support the
development of a strong capital market in the region.
The EBRD has signed more than 220 agribusiness projects worth a total of €3.5
billion throughout central and eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of
Independent States. In Poland the EBRD has invested more than €3 billion in
more than 130 projects in all sectors ranging from agribusiness to
telecommunications.
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