The latest investment will help the expansion of the Czech market leader in the area of computer games and gaming consoles. The company Game Czech a. s., the Czech market leader in the broad retail segment of computer games and game consoles, has a new major investor. Genesis Capital, the manager of several successful private equity funds, has bought 100 % of the Company on behalf of its investors.
“We started our negotiations with respect to an investment into Game Czech this past February. Back then, the British firm Game Group Plc. was in a difficult financial situation and it had put its subsidiaries – including the Czech one - for sale,”commented Jan Tauber, the CEO of Genesis Capital, “Despite the problems experienced by the parent company, Game Czech has been a successful and profitable company here in the Czech Republic for a long time, with a steady growth in recent years. We feel this Company can continue expanding, which was the primary reason for our investment,”added Tauber.
The management of Game Czech will basically remain unchanged. Lukáš Karel will continue in his position as the Chairman of the Board. Genesis Capital nominated Slavomír Pavlíček into the Company’s Supervisory Board. As a former owner of the company Game (formerly JRC), Pavlíček is expected to join also the ownership structure as a minority shareholder. Kateřina Skalická, a former chairwoman of the Board, is returning to the Company with primary responsibilities in the areas of project planning and the oversight of the future expansion plans.
“We are very glad to be joined by such a strong financial partner, which can assure both our customers as well as our business partners of our stability in potentially rough economic conditions that may lie ahead of us. It will also provide us with the kind of financial backing we need to successfully develop our expansion plans. This is what Genesis Capital can provide us with,”said the chairman of the board, Lukáš Karel.
Genesis Capital acquired the Company in the environment of very favourable market projections. Macroeconomic and demographic factors indicate that the Central and Eastern European regions will continue to show steady growth in gaming sales and, as a result, there is a good potential for additional market development. According to the Gaming Industry Association of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in 2011 the gaming segment had total sales in the two countries of CZK 2.2 billion (EUR 88 million).
One of the key factors leading to Genesis Capital’s interest in the Game Czech investment is that today’s younger generations are devoting a lot more of their free time to entertainment pursuits. As a result, there is a strong and growing demand for the Company’s products and services along with the ongoing technological developments that are driving new business opportunities for the gaming industry.
About Game Czech a. s.
Game Czech a. s. currently has 30 shops l (4 of which are franchised) located in attractive shopping center locations in the Czech Republic. Last year, the Company reported sales of 317 million crowns (12.7 million euros). It is a Czech market leader with approximately 20 percent of the Czech retail gaming software and hardware market. The company has a total of 102 employees, 81 of whom work in the stores and 21 at corporate headquarters.
About Genesis Capital
For more than ten years, Genesis Capital has been offering financing to small and midsize companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, to support their growth and development. Via its private equity funds, Genesis Capital has already supported more than twenty dynamic Czech and Slovak businesses, many of which have become cutting edge in their chosen field, thanks to their relationship with Genesis Capital. In total, Genesis Capital has provided more than 2 billion Czech crowns in growth capital for companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Since its inception in 1999, Genesis Capital has managed three private equity funds with a total volume of almost € 100 million. The first two funds have already fully committed their capital. At present, Genesis Private Equity Fund II, with a volume of € 40 million, is open and available to finance prospective investments. The companies into which Genesis Capital has invested include AB Facility, pietro filipi, CCS, ETARGET, Gumotex, Energetické strojírny Brno, Roltechnik, Profimedia, Vydis, GTH CATERING, AZ KLIMA, Servodata and others.
In the present environment, marked by difficult access to standard bank financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, Genesis Capital funds provide an advantageous alternative for acquiring the required capital for companies with growth potential; the funds also focus on buy-out financing.