Private equity firms Genesis Capital and ESPIRA Investments have acquired an interest in V4C’s investment in Summa Linguae Technologies, the Warsaw New Connect listed multilingual data management company.
The V4C Poland Plus Fund (“V4C”) announced in a current filing to the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the effective transfer of a part of its stake in Summa Linguae Technologies S.A. to a Luxembourg holding company, LSP Investments Sarl (“LSP”). The filing is available here. Ultimately, LSP is to serve as the holding vehicle for V4C’s entire stake with the remainder of the shares to be transferred upon their dematerialization.
Immediately following the transfer, funds of Genesis Capital and ESPIRA Investments acquired a minority stake in LSP from V4C.
Piotr Misztal, partner at V4C and Chairman of the Summa Linguae Supervisory Board commented: “We are pleased to welcome Genesis and ESPIRA as indirect shareholders of Summa Linguae to contribute to its further development and to provide an even stronger capital base to assist the company in meeting its ambitious growth plans. Together, the three firms will provide an added depth of expertise, experience and capital as the company seeks to build on 2019 developments. Also, we look forward to welcoming representatives of Genesis and ESPIRA to the Supervisory Board of Summa Linguae.”
V4C acquired its stake in Summa Linguae in early December 2019 through a capital increase and purchase of existing shares. The entry of Genesis and ESPIRA completes its original plans to work with co-investors on the transaction.
Tatiana Balkovicová, Senior Investment Director at Genesis Capital commented: “We are actively seeking investments beyond our Czech base and Summa Linguae’s international perspectives and strong management team offered a good opportunity to invest in a leader in the multilingual data management space. With increasing internationalisation and digitialisation of business, Summa Linguae is well positioned to capture both trends.”
Emília Mamajová, Founding Partner of ESPIRA noted: “We seek to invest in innovative and diverse businesses. With a balanced senior management team and a truly international footprint, Summa Linguae is a perfect example of how central European companies can successfully push beyond their local markets. We are happy to be part of a business with a foot in central Europe, Scandinavia, India and now North America.”
Summa Linguae Technologies (www.summalinguae.com), listed on the New Connect market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, is a leading Polish provider of technology-enabled language-related services for B2B clients. Headquartered in Cracow, Summa Linguae has a global footprint having completed acquisitions in India, Sweden and, following V4C’s investment, Canada and the US.
Contacts: V4C: Piotr Misztal, Partner +48 22 627 4000 Piotr.misztal@value4capital.com
Genesis: Tatiana Balkovicová, Senior Director +420 737 210 760 balkovicova@genesis.cz
ESPIRA: Emília Mamajová, Founding Partner +420 210 111 600 emilia@espirainvestments.com
ESPIRA: Emília Mamajová, Founding Partner +420 210 111 600 emilia@espirainvestments.com
About V4C Value4Capital specialises in private equity investments in service businesses, looking for opportunities where the service has a strong local delivery component. It focuses on Poland, but selectively invests in Romania, the Baltics and the other EU member states of central Europe. Owned and managed by its partners, V4C has over 25 years of mid-market private equity experience in the region.
The Fund, which held its final closing in July 2019, benefits from financial backing from the European Union under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The Polish Growth Fund of Funds (PGFF) is also an indirect investor in the Fund. The PGFF is an initiative created by cooperation between BGK (Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego in Polish) and the European Investment Fund.
About Genesis Genesis Capital provides advisory to private equity funds offering access to financing for growth and development of small and medium-sized companies in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Austria. Since its foundation in 1999, Genesis Capital has provided consultancy to five private equity funds with a cumulative size exceeding EUR 200 million. These funds supported over 50 firms, having invested over CZK 3 billion. Many of those firms became leaders in their respective fields also thanks to their cooperation with Genesis Capital. The current fund, Genesis Private Equity Fund III (GPEF III), with the size of over EUR 80 million has been actively investing since 2015.
About ESPIRA ESPIRA Investments is a private equity firm investing growth capital in Central European small and medium size enterprises. We invest in entrepreneurs who have developed successful businesses to a certain stage and have passion and drive for further growth. Our overriding objective is to partner with high-potential SMEs in the CEE that are in a position to accelerate their growth via capital investment from an experienced investor.