Jet Investment expands abroad and opens a branch in Poland, to be followed by Germany next year
(Brno, March 2nd 2023) Investment company Jet Investment is opening a branch in Poland Warsaw. The unit will be headed by Marek Chłopek, an experienced Polish private equity executive. Jet Investment plans to invest in up to eight companies in Poland over three years with a total value of over EUR 100 million. The plan is to open another branch in Germany next year.
Jet Investment, a Czech Republic-based investment company that manages assets of over €500 million (including committed capital) in its private equity and real estate funds, has opened its own office in Warsaw. An office in Germany will follow next year. "We have been investing in industrial companies in Poland and the whole Central European region for twenty-five years. Our investment approach is based on hands-on management, i.e. close cooperation between us and the management of the companies and participation in the decision-making process, which we will do even more effectively thanks to our expansion through local offices," says Jet Investment partner Marek Malik.
Jet Investment, which used to own the Polish railway manufacturer Kuźnia Ostrów Wielkopolski and bought Gdansk engineering giant Rockfin and several industrial properties last year, plans to invest at least EUR 100 million in Poland and grow by three to eight acquisitions, each with an equity value of between EUR 10 million and EUR 50 million, over three years. Jet Investment already has eight projects in the pipeline, five in Poland. The company's sectoral focus is renewable energy equipment, the rail industry, aerospace and automotive industry, industrial machinery, speciality and biochemicals, industrial waste processing and recycling, technical textiles, composite materials, speciality alloys, building materials or ICT. "42 per cent of European industrial companies are concentrated in the Central European region, and large, economically growing Poland offers investors a huge pool of attractive companies with management that is on a par with Western Europe. Our advantage as a local investor is that we are culturally and now, with our office in Warsaw, geographically close to local companies," explains Marek Malik.
Experienced investment executive Marek Chłopek will lead Jet Investment Poland. "Warsaw is the centre of Central European private equity and still has a lot to offer to investors like Jet Investment, especially because investors of our size are mainly focused on the IT and technology scene here. In the field of industrial investments, we see the room for medium-sized investors on the Polish market and much less competition compared to Western Europe," says Marek Chłopek, who previously co-founded and headed Penton Partners' equity group and managed a multi-family office.
The Polish team will prospectively have 6-7 employees, including four experienced investment directors. They will be responsible for sourcing investment targets and their subsequent management, and, once the investment horizon has been reached, also for sourcing potential buyers. Jet Investment plans that the Polish office will also start fundraising after obtaining the relevant license from the Polish authorities and will also offer investment in Jet funds to qualified Polish investors. The current investor base of Jet funds consists of Central European HNWIs, family offices and local and international financial institutions.
Following the Polish office, Jet Investment also plans to establish its investment arm in Germany next year, where the investment team will identify acquisition opportunities and manage German and Austrian companies.
Marek Chłopek, CFA
Polish investment executive with more than 20 years of proven experience in private equity, stock market investments and investment fund management. He co-founded and managed for twenty years the Polish equity group Penton Partners, which managed private equity funds with a total value of PLN 365 million and a multi-family office. He has worked for other significant investment funds and banks in Poland and is a Warsaw University of Technology graduate.
Jet Investment
Jet Investment, a. s., owned by four partners, Igor Fait, Lubor Turza, Libor Šparlinek and Marek Malík, manages assets of over €500 million (including committed capital) in its qualified investor funds. Since its establishment in 1997, the company has specialized in finding investment opportunities in medium-sized Central European companies in the manufacturing industry, which it considers promising in terms of their growth potential and return on investment. Since 2015, it has been conducting its investment activities through Jet private equity funds, which are intended only for qualified investors and are subject to regulation by the Czech National Bank.
Currently, through Jet 1 and Jet 2 funds, the investment company manages the major companies 2 JCP, TEDOM, TEDOM ENERGIE, ROCKFIN, BENVIG HEAT TRANSFER, HOECKLE AUSTRIA, STROJÍRNY POLDI, KORDCARBON, FIBERPREG and EDS GROUP. It employs approximately 4,100 people in its portfolio companies.
In 2021, the Jet Industrial Lease (JIL) fund was established to invest in industrial real estate. JIL manages nine property investments in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.