Warburg Pincus buys stake in Inea

The investment is believed to be the largest in Polish private equity this year. It is thought to have been made via the Warburg Pincus Private Equity XI fund, which held its interim close in May 2012 at $5bn (€3.4bn). Warburg bought a stake of slightly less than 50%, according to Reuters.

The funding will be used to roll out the cable operator's broadband access to an additional 200,000 households and more businesses in the Wielkopolska region of western Poland. Bolt-on acquisitions of some of the 15 smaller cable operators in this area may also be a possibility in the future, reports say.

Warburg has invested more than $40bn through 13 funds since its foundation in 1966. Its headquarters are based in New York but the GP operates offices in London, Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Frankfurt.

The firm has invested $13.5bn in companies in the technology, data and media sectors. Previous investments include an 8.8% stake in embedded computer technology company Kontron AG and the backing of oil and gas exploration company Explora Petroleum.

Company
Inea was founded in 1992 and is based in Poznan, in the Wielkopolska region of western Poland. It provides telecommunications services including broadband and fibre-to-the-home networks to both residential and business customers in the region. The company is the fourth largest cable operator in Poland and generated revenues of PLN 169m in 2012.

People
Janusz Kosinski is president of Inea's management board and co-founder of the company. Charles Kaye and Joseph Landy are presidents at Warburg Pincus. Paul Best is a managing director at the firm.

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• Topics
• CEE
• Buyouts
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• Warburg Pincus
• Poland