According to the Wall Street Journal, AIG is again making a push to enter the Turkish buyout/venture space. Setup in 2000, the AIG Blue Voyage Fund was a $100m (€72m) fund dedicated to private equity investing in Turkey.
Of course you may remember that those were tough times to put together a fund {with the country nearing elections, the 2001 crisis, and the devaluation of the lira}. Nonetheless, the spirit of putting together a private equity fund in Turkey was commendable and they were able to make three acquisitions of companies in the consumer and entertainment sectors which included AFM Theaters and Galatasary Sportif by 2004. Perhaps it was the trouble with board member shifts at Galatasaray that made them lose heart? Even so, the fund deliberately slowed its investment pace from 2002 to 2004 and by 2005, the fund closed with only 30% of its capital committed. Aside from Blue Voyage, however, last year AIG Capital was able to regain some ground in Turkey, taking a stake in For You, a discount fashion retailer with branches across the country.
Well, that was then and this is now. Serkan Elden, who spent six years setting up AIG's business in Southeast Europe, has been rehired to fill the post of president and chief executive for Blue Voyage Advisors. He will also be given the title of managing director of AIG Capital Partners, and will be responsible for boosting the firm's investment activity in Turkey. Elden originally left AIG Blue Voyage in 2004 to setup his own boutique investment advisory firm, 3 Seas Capital Partners, a firm that still exists today. From there, he became chief executive of Fintur Holdings BV, a joint venture of Turkcell and TeliaSonera, and a provider of mobile telecommunication networks servicing Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Moldova.
So, per my last post regarding KKR's acquisition of UN Ro-Ro, and re-emergence of the AIG Blue Voyage Fund, it is interesting to note the direction of the trend. Again, we will have to wait and see who in Turkey is ready for the next buyout deal, and who will enter next.
For future reference, all of these Turkish funds and PE firms can be found in the PE/VC Index in the left sidebar.
 Technorati Tags: AIG, Blue Voyage Fund, Private Equity, Investments, Deal Flow, Turkey, Buyout, Southeastern Europe, Venture CapitalLabels: AIG, Blue Voyage Fund, Buyout, Investments, Private Equity, Southeastern Europe, Turkey, Venture Capital
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Publisher: Jon H. Black
