EXCLUSIVE: Abris hits €210m for CEE

The fund plans to hold a final close at €450m around the end of the year, sources close to the deal have said.

PPMs were sent out in May, making this one of Europe's precious few speedy raises this year.

The first close is comprised of a dozen investors, two of which are US endowments and new to the fund. Unlike some other funds raised this year, Abris did not offer any sweeteners to come in at first close.

Abris' first vehicle raised €320m in October 2008 above its €300m target. Harvard pumped in €100m for that vehicle and has apparently re-upped for this latest fund.

This fund is being placed by Atlantic Bridge and Liberty Global in Boston. Travers Smith is doing legals and JTC is the fund administrator.

Abris is among the first of the CEE crew to announce a fund close, with Mid Europa and Enterprise are also believed to be on the road since earlier this year.

Abris has a couple of deals under its belt. In 2010 it acquired WestLB's Polish operations for around Pln 250m. Abris acquired a 55% stake while IDG Brokerage House acquired the other 45%. Shortly thereafter it acquired Masterlease, a Polish auto fleet management business. The deal was unusual in that it utilised the Warsaw Stock Exchange's trading platform Catalyst for bonds totaling €129.3m to replace the leverage previously provided to Masterlease by GMAC.

Abris was set up in 2007 by George Swirski, formerly of Advent International, and Neil Milne, ex Copernicus Capital.

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• Topics
• CEE
• Buyout
• Poland
• Abris Capital Partners