ACG for Grasshoppers!

Mixing together corporate managers, private equity providers, and intermediaries in one business forum is a true challenge. When they join together, the meeting room buzzes like a beehive. Lately, one of the corporate members of ACG Austria called to tell me that he couldn’t attend our next lunch meeting. When I asked him why, he said, ironically referring to the impetus of ACG, “I’m on a business trip in China; I need to grow my company.” Ideas for growth are just what we propose to ACG members! While corporate members are frequently en route, private equity investors often look for new opportunities in a broader environment. When we started the third European chapter, after London and Paris, in Vienna in 2002, the European M&A market had just begun to recover from the dot-com disaster that cured financial investors of overly optimistic growth projections and demoralized many companies that had planned an IPO. Most companies were not in an acquisition mood for quite some time, and corporate development became a synonym for restructuring and cost cutting. Corporate growth was a subject that would eventually come up again in the future. Private equity players were struggling to reassess their portfolios. The lowest point was reached when the current German Vice Chancellor called private equity investors locusts that jump at companies, feed on their profits, and then leave to pass on to their next prey. That was the time to found a new ACG chapter, to bring together professionals in the corporate, banking, and private equity scene under the roof of a U.S.-driven organization with a grasshopper-green logo. While we Europeans tend to look back with resignation at the empty space the grasshopper has left, the forward-minded U.S. business spirit would find the location ideal for a Greenfield venture. In this spirit, the members of ACG Austria have since met and promoted their respective business opportunities to each other. Even if our meetings, which usually bring together 20 corporate, 20 private equity, and 20 service members, take place in a restaurant located in the heart of Vienna’s “green lung” – Prater Park – no locust or grasshopper has ever been seen there. Instead, we’ve had an impressive list of charismatic speakers, a constant exchange of ideas, and shared interesting business perspectives. With the economic situation getting better and 2006 promising to become an excellent dealmaking year in Europe, we have good reasons to be optimistic, but we still need to actively promote our corporate strategies to exceed our growth ambitions. Middle-market buyouts in Germany, with an aggregate deal value of 7 billion euros last year, made the German private equity industry No. 3 in size after the United Kingdom and France. Austrian investors often make their first step outside of the country with an acquisition in one of the neighboring Eastern European countries. Many ACG Austria members already have activities in Central and Eastern Europe, mainly in the new EU25 countries, like the Czech Republic, Hungary, or Slovenia. They are now also looking at growing Far Eastern markets like China or India. From a European point of view, ACG offers opportunities to build networks all over the world. The recent foundation of ACG Frankfurt was the latest leap. We are looking forward to growing ACG in line with the growth strategies of our members hopping around the world from ACG chapter to ACG chapter – just like grasshoppers! This year ACG Austria will organize its first Capital Connection to get more contacts and deals out of our already prospering market. Let’s meet on June 9 at the Vienna Marriott to make the future look even greener than Vienna in spring. Harald C. Klien Managing Partner, CD Invest Consult ACG Austria [email protected] (c) 2006 Mergers and Acquisitions Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.majournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com