Thein to raise EUR 45m to boost IT and engineering funds

Katka Krosnar
08 December 2022

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Thein, a Czech investment group, is looking to raise around EUR 45m across two funds investing in technology and engineering businesses in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, founder and owner Tomas Budnik told Unquote.

Its Thein Digital fund is looking to add another EUR 15m to deploy in stable IT and cyber security businesses with proven technologies and that help customers with digital transformation.

A joint venture with Czech finance group J&T Private Equity, the vehicle has raised EUR 25m from Czech and Slovak high-net-worth individuals and two unnamed institutional investors, Budnik said. It expects to double the fund size within two to three years, he added.

Thein also plans to raise a further EUR 30m for its Thein Industry fund, which invests in engineering companies and has a significant part of its portfolio focused on the rail industry, in areas such as locomotive rental, custom manufacture and component repair. The vehicle currently has around EUR 10m in commitments, made mainly by Budnik himself. It plans to raise the further EUR 30m from external investors in the next five years, he said.

Budnik stressed nevertheless that Thein does not have a fixed closing date for either fund, as he prefers to have a strong pipeline of targets before raising further capital.

Thein, which was founded in 2020, is interested in institutional investors as well as high-net-worth individuals from the Czech Republic and Slovakia for the two funds.

The funds have an investment period of seven years and offer a return of 15%, Budnik said.

Investments
Thein Digital has three companies in its portfolio: Thein Digital, which provides IT infrastructure including cloud services, enterprise architecture and DevOps services; Thein Security, a specialist in cyber security that provides security as a service; and C SYSTEM, which focuses on selling and servicing IT technology as a service (DaaS/IaaS) including cloud solutions.

The group of companies specialises in providing IT infrastructure services such as cloud solutions, enterprise architecture, private 5G networks, and digitising industry, as well as cyber security services. They are largely focusing on serving clients in the banking, telco, energy and automotive sectors as well as the public sector, he added.

Thein Industry's portfolio companies supply machine components, such as those for manufacturers of grinding equipment, production lines and electric drives. The fund also invests in chemical and processing companies as well as businesses involved in the development of hydrogen technologies for rail and road transport.

The firm's focus on the engineering segments is due to the Czech Republic's and Slovakia's strong industrial heritage from the times of the First Republic, between the two world wars, when then-Czechoslovakia was a manufacturing powerhouse, he noted.

The interest in the IT sector is connected to Budnik's long experience in the telco sector, including three years as chairman and CEO of O2 Czech Republic and most recently three years as CTO of Czech investment group's PPF's telco group. ICT plays a key role in helping both industry and the public sector to migrate to digitisation, he said.

Thein is named after previous generations of Budnik's family. The firm has a core staff of almost 20 people and more than 500 people are employed across the companies within the group.