goetzpartners successfully advises on sale of leading Czech IT and communication

goetzpartners CORPORATE FINANCE GmbH announced that it acted as exclusive advisor to the shareholders of Computer Press – the leading IT and communications book and magazine publisher in the Czech Republic and Slovakia – in the sale of the company to Riverside Company, a private equity firm focused on the small end of the middle market.

In this secondary buy-out, the sellers, goetzpartners’ clients, were the private equity investor Bancroft Group, who owned the majority since 2000, Jiri Hlavenka and former management. “This transaction is creates significant opportunities to continue the company’s development, increase sales and readership, and expand the company’s market share,” said Jiri Hlavenka who will continue to have a 25% stake and remain on the company's board. Bancroft Group is a private equity firm with an exclusive focus on Central and Eastern Europe since 1989.

Headquartered in Brno, Czech Republic, Computer Press was founded in 1994 by Jiri Hlavenka and four others to publish non-fiction literature and magazines. During its history, Computer Press’ market share and sales revenues grew consistently. From 1996, Computer Press developed a successful Internet retail business as well as other Web services that were subsequently spun off into separate entities, one of which, InternetShops, was also sold by goetzpartners earlier this year to private equity firm Genesis Capital.

Today, Computer Press is the dominant publisher of computer books and magazines, one of the largest non-fiction book publishers, and a leader in Internet technology magazines in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It consists of two entities: Computer Press Books, a.s. publishing non-fiction literature, and Computer Press Media, a.s. focused on magazine publishing. In 2004, the group generated revenues of €12.6 million. Currently it employs 138 people.

About goetzpartners
goetzpartners is a European corporate finance advisory and management consultancy group. The company is headquartered in Munich. Further offices are located in Düsseldorf, London, Paris, Madrid and Prague. goetzpartners CORPORATE FINANCE offers a broad range of investment banking services with a focus on acquisitions, disposals and mergers with deal values of up to €2billion.

For further information please contact:
Dr. Gernot Wunderle, Managing Director
goetzpartners CORPORATE FINANCE GmbH
Tel.: +49-89-290725-122