Looking Abroad for Business Development Capital

The CzechLink Project, led by the CzechInvest Agency, helps Czech companies to find a foreign partner seeking to further develop its business in the same sector as the local company and willing to maintain or extend the local company's activities and create new jobs. About 30 Czech firms considering acquisition by a strong foreign partner are on CzechLink's list at present. Interest in capital or strategic partnerships keeps increasing on both sides: among local businesses as well as foreign investors.

"Launched at the end of 2010, CzechLink is now a well-established project. Foreign investors, interested in partnership with Czech businesses, are attracted by the mature Czech market and by the matching of their investment objectives to customers, i.e. circumstances involving potential for attractive profit. Investors are seeking opportunities in the Czech Republic to extend the range of their current activities and expand their business into areas where they have not yet operated", explains CzechInvest Agency CEO Miroslav Křížek.

For the local companies, the CzechLink Project provides opportunities to gain capital and find partners wishing to participate actively in the operation and further development of the company. "Such partnerships are most frequently sought by Czech companies in the automotive and precision engineering industries. For the most part they include small and middle-sized enterprises employing up to a hundred people. Almost 60% of the local companies involved in the project are interested in a full acquisition by the foreign partner", adds Miroslav Křížek.

Suitable capital or strategic partners in the Czech Republic are sought by investors from the countries where transnational corporations are traditionally based, such as the United States, United Kingdom or Japan, as well as by firms that only seek to get to the Central European market - these come primarily from Sweden, Denmark or Spain. They are looking for an appreciation of the invested capital through either increased sales or reduced costs.

The CzechLink Project was launched in response to the growing demand for capital linkages between foreign investors and Czech companies. Its mission is to make Czech firms stronger in terms of capital, boost the inflow of foreign investments and streamline the relations with strategic partners. For each participating Czech firm, CzechInvest specialist prepare free of charge a complete prospectus, including an analysis of financial results, and the agency then offers it actively to potential investors both abroad and in the Czech Republic. Companies interested in finding capital or strategic partners to accelerate their business can register with the project through an application form at the CzechInvest Agency's website: www.czechinvest.org/czechlink. The eligibility conditions include at least a 5-year history and functionality of the company - it must not be insolvent or in liquidation. Information about specific investment targets in the Czech Republic will be provided to potential foreign investors only on the basis of a contract. Participation in the project is free of charge.

For more information please contact the CzechInvest Press Centre

Štěpánka Filipová, spokesperson, phone: +420 296 342 538, stepanka.filipova@czechinvest.org

Contact to Ministry of Industry and Trade:

Veronika Forejtová, spokesperson , phone: +420 224 853 291, forejtova@mpo.cz

CzechInvest is celebrating its 20th anniversary!

CzechInvest has been supporting the inflow of foreign direct investments to the Czech Republic for twenty years already. Since its establishment in 1992, the agency has mediated 1,798 investment projects with the total value of more than CZK 715 billion, thanks to which nearly a quarter of a million new jobs have been created. CzechInvest contributes to improving the overall business environment in the Czech Republic and strives to increase the competitiveness of the Czech economy in changing conditions. Since 2004, the agency has also operated as the implementation body for EU structural funds and has regional offices staffed by specialists in every regional capital in the Czech Republic. CzechInvest's CEO, Miroslav Křížek, was named Manager of the Year 2011 in the Business and Public Services sector.