MCI Capital

📣 The echoes of last week's Thomas Cook takeover by eSky Group (MCI Capital portfolio company) are still going strong. This time, the esteemed The Telegraph took a closer look at it 🔎. "The UK 🇬🇧 spends a lot of time worrying about the competition from Germany 🇩🇪 and France 🇫🇷, but in reality we may well be looking in the wrong place. The next wave of corporate takeovers is more likely to come from Poland 🇵🇱 – because increasingly that’s where the money is," writes the newspaper. 📕 https://lnkd.in/d4ZHRb4Q

📣 New dividend policy of MCI "The Management Board of MCI Capital will recommend to the general meeting of the company that an amount corresponding to 4% of the equity shown in the last annual financial statement audited and approved by the general meeting before the dividend payment date be allocated for the payment of dividend to shareholders," writes Ewa Ogryczak, vice-president of MCI Capital, in a special comment for ISBtech. 👉 "We believe that the adoption of the policy is also justified by the achieved increase in scale and diversification of operations and the advanced stage of the investment cycle," she adds. 📕 https://lnkd.in/dKuRpGtX

"For us, the acquisition of Thomas Cook by our portfolio company eSky Group is primarily an opportunity to expand our technology beyond Poland 🇵🇱and beyond the region, but also to Eastern Europe. We also want to gain a significant foothold in the largest, most dynamic tourism market in Europe, i.e. in Great Britain 🇬🇧," - says Michal Gorecki, senior investment partner in an interview for BIZNES24. Firma, giełda, pieniądze. More: https://lnkd.in/dgDWNmiM

📣 Polish airline ticket purchasing specialists from MCI Capital portfolio are buying a recognizable British travel brand. It is to help them expand into Western Europe 🇵🇱🇬🇧🛫. This is the news from the front page of Puls Biznesu. 👉 "The brand is British and the owner is Chinese, but will soon be replaced by Poles. After months of negotiations, Polish eSky Group has signed an agreement to take over the rights to the Thomas Cook brand from the Chinese conglomerate Fosun". 📕 More: https://lnkd.in/d-cQRBm8

📣 What actions are required to stimulate the Venture Capital sector in Poland🇵🇱? 📣 Should its financing come from private investors or public funds🤔? 📣 These issues were discussed, among others, by participants of a panel discussion held during the Forum Ekonomiczne in Karpacz⛰️. 👉 Paweł Borys, currently managing partner of MCI Capital, recalled that the Venture Capital market was one of Polski Fundusz Rozwoju S.A. (PFR) priorities when he had the opportunity to lead this organization. "We created PFR Ventures as a fund of funds that invested money in 50 different VC funds." 👉 "MCI Capital has already passed the stage of investing in VC, because we are currently dealing with much larger projects in the range of EUR 25-100 million each 💶. However, this does not mean that this market does not concern us: from the seeding at the VC stage, in 3-5 years, several new companies from the area of new technologies will certainly appear, which will have a chance for much larger financing and in the future will become European 🇪🇺 or global champions🌍," added Borys. 👉 As Piotr Rożek (editor-in-chief of Polska Agencja Prasowa Biznes) , the moderator of the debate, emphasized Venture Capital funds are a common source of financing for projects that demonstrate high growth potential, innovation, but also risk. 👉 They are a catalyst for technological change, which is why one of the recommendations of the European Commission 🇪🇺 for Poland 🇵🇱 is to strengthen the VC market. This is to help raise the low level of innovation in our country, which has been in one of the last places in the European Innovation Scoreboard innovation ranking for many years.

📣 eSky Group (belongs to MCI Capital portfolio) 🛫 🏨 is the first company in the world 🌍 to integrate its booking systems with Google Pay’s secure payment authentication 💸🧑💻 – a biometrics-based solution. 👉 The solution uses device tokens and biometric technologies built into devices to replace traditional authentication methods, allowing the payment process to be shortened by a third and transactions to be more secure. 📕: https://lnkd.in/duA7Ctvy

📣 Of the over 2200 competitors who finished last week's IronMan in Frankfurt, Tomasz Szala was 30th 🏊🏃🚴🏻. “In the running part, I ran the first 10 km in 38m20sec and I was counting on a good result. After just 1 round (out of 4), I had a classic bomb and the pace dropped quite drastically. The lack of longer training was the main factor,” says Szala. Tomek, we are keeping our fingers crossed for your start in Hawaii 🇺🇸🌊 in October 🤞.

📣 We are pleased to announce that Tomasz Szala, a renowned triathlete, turned out to be the best among Polish participants of IronMan 70.3 Gdynia 🏊🏃🚴♂️. The competition took place over several days in this beautiful seaside city. 👉 “The run was pretty good when comparing it to the amount of time I was training this discipline because of health problems💊. I started considering myself as talented runner 😅. I finished as 12th in a strong international company and 1st Polish triathlete,” says Szala. Good luck in your next starts, Tomek 👍💪

📣 Focus Telecom Polska Sp. z o.o. takes over Systell and strengthens its position in contact center services 👏💪 👉 Focus (MCI Capital portfolio company), is taking over 100 percent of the shares in Systell, its previous main competitor. This will strengthen Focus's position as a leader in contact center software in Poland 📲💻. 👉 "The acquisition will also contribute to a rapid increase in the scale of the company's operations as the largest supplier of modern solutions in the Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) model on our market," - writes Pawel Sikorski, investment partner at MCI Capital, in a special comment for ISBtech. 📕 https://lnkd.in/d-qvwDnp

"In CEE region🇪🇺, we still have a market of buyers rather than sellers 🏪. This gives good prospects for attractive transactions for new technology private equity funds such as ours," says Paweł Borys, managing partner of MCI Capital in a special comment for Gazeta Giełdy i Inwestorów „Parkiet”.